Cougars Fall 5-2 In Vancouver

By 250 News

The Prince George Cougars could not recover from a slow first period in which they fell behind 4-1, en route to a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Vancouver Giants Tuesday.

The Cougars were playing their third straight game against the Giants, after splitting the first two in Prince George last weekend.  The game was also the Cougars first road game in a month.  But just 21 seconds into the sixth meeting of the season series, Giants leading scorer Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring, beating Ty Rimmer high on the glove hand.  Five minutes later, Neil Manning put home a rebound to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.  The Cougars caught a huge break, though, at the 16:52 mark, when Sena Acolatse's clearing attempt from the red line tipped off Manning's stick and beat Giants goalie Mark Segal, cutting the Giants lead to 2-1.  For Acolatse, the goal is his 10th of the season.  But just 10 seconds later, Joel Rogers fired a shot from the left point that went off Rimmer's right arm and bounced in the net to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.  Rimmer was pulled for James Priestner, but 16 seconds later, the Giants added to their lead when Brendan Rowinski scored from the right wing, giving Vancouver a 4-1 first period lead.  The Giants out-shot the Cougars 15-2 in the opening 20 minutes.

Rimmer was back in goal to start the second period and the Cougars cut into their three goal deficit.  Greg Fraser knocked the puck off the boards and it skidded into the Giants zone.  James Dobrowolski caught up to the puck on the left wing and while cutting in front of the net, beat Segal on the back hand, extending his point streak to five games, with four goals and eight points over that span.  That was the only tally of the second period and the Cougars out-shot the Giants 9-6.

But the Giants would finish the scoring when Michael Burns scored on his own rebound at 14:07 for a 5-2 lead and eventual victory for the Giants.  Vancouver out-shot Prince George 20-5 in the third and 41-16 in the game.  After surrendering three goals on 14 shots in the first period, Rimmer handled 25 of 26 shots in the final two periods, including tough saves in tight in the third period.  The Cougars were 0-for-2 on the power play and the Giants went 0-for-5.

The Cougars, now 21-17-2-1, finish the mini road trip with a date against Chilliwack Wednesday night.  The two teams collide three consecutive times, with the Bruins visiting Prince George Friday and Saturday at CN Centre, starting at 7:0pm both nights.  Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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