Silvertips Defeat Cougars 4-2

By 250 News

The Prince George Cougars brought an end to their schedule in the month of January with a hard fought 4-2 loss to the Everett Silvertips Saturday night in Everett.

Although for both teams it was their 50th game of the regular season, it was the first meeting of the year between the Cougars and Silvertips.  The Cougars were looking to split their weekend road trip, after a 7-3 loss at the hands of the Kelowna Rockets Friday night.  The Cougars took control of the first half of the opening period and did not allow a shot on Ty Rimmer until close to 11 minutes into the first period on a Silvertips dump in from their own zone.  Despite a big lead in shots early, the Cougars could not solve Silvertips goalie Kent Simpson.  Everett began applying some heat as the first wore down and were rewarded with two quick goals late in the frame.  Clayton Cumiskey opened the scoring at 18:32, then 53 seconds later, Josh Birkholz scored on a 2-on-1 to put the hosts up 2-0 through one period of play.  The Cougars out-shot the Silvertips 8-7 in the first period.

The Silvertips picked up where they left off to open the second period, when Tyler Maxwell banked a shot from the right wing corner off a player in front of the net then behind Rimmer for a 3-0 Everett lead just 41 seconds into the stanza.  Although the Cougars continued to play well and controlled much of the play, Simpson stood tall in net, stopping all 16 shots in the period.  The Silvertips had seven shots again in the period and held a 3-0 lead going into the final frame.

In the third, it appeared to be a matter of time before the Cougars would break through.  They finally would when Charles Inglis snapped a wrist shot from the point that eluded Simpson for Inglis' 20th goal of the year and 50th in his WHL career.  The goal at 11:44 cut the Everett lead to 3-1, with assists to Jesse Forsberg and Troy Bourke.  20 seconds later, Brett Connolly stormed in on the right wing and beat Simpson high on the blocker side for his 28th goal of the year, narrowing the gap to 3-2 for Everett.  Brock Hirsche and Jaroslav Vlach picked up helpers on the Connolly goal that made it 3-2.  But Maxwell, the Silvertips leading scorer, gave the Silvertips some breathing room with a perfect deflection off a shot that was going wide through Rimmer's legs to get Everett ahead 4-2 and that's how it would end.  The Cougars were out-shot in the third 13-9 but had a 33-27 advantage in the game.  Prince George was 0-for-5 on the power play and the Silvertips were 1-for-4.

The Cougars, who are 24-23-2-1 after the loss, get set for two big games with the Rockets at CN Centre Friday and Saturday.  The Rockets, with their win over Vancouver Saturday, took over first place of the BC division.  Puck drop both nights is 7:00pm and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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