Cougars Crush Giants 8-0 In Vancouver

Saturday, March 12, 2011 02:59 AM

The Prince George Cougars got a solid start to their busy weekend. The Cougars enjoyed their most lopsided win of the season in an 8-0 victory over the Vancouver Giants Friday at Pacific Coliseum in the first game of three in three nights away from home.

The Cougars and Giants were meeting for the eighth and final time this season, with the Cougars victorious in two previous match-ups. The Giants controlled the opening seven minutes of play, but Ty Rimmer kept the game scoreless for the Cougars in goal. The Cougars found themselves short-handed mid-way through the opening period, but early in the penalty kill, Taylor Stefishen broke away down the right wing. Stefishen's shot was stopped by Mark Segal, but a rebound bounced out to Brett Connolly who put home his 41st goal of the season and second short-handed goal of the year to make it 1-0 Prince George. Although the Cougars were out-shot 9-5 in the first period, they started to get their game going as the first period wore on.

The second period started with a bang for the Cougars, when Spencer Asuchak laid out Andrej Stastny outside the Cougars blue-line. That kicked off a dominant period for the Cougars, who took a 2-0 lead when Jesse Forsberg picked off a pass inside the Giants zone. Forsberg sent a backhand shot towards the net that Charles Inglis picked off and roofed past Segal for his 30th goal of the year at 5:34. The Cougars scored on the power play at 9:19, when James Dobrowolski took a cross ice pass from Brett Connolly and snapped a shot on goal that went through Segal and Taylor Stefishen poked into the open cage for his 22nd goal of the year. The Cougars built on their 3-0 lead late in the second when two Giants skated past a loose puck in the Vancouver zone, allowing Inglis to pick up the puck and walk in on Segal. Inglis cut from left to right in front of the goal and stuck his stick between his legs and lifted the shot past Segal for his second of the game and a 4-0 Cougars lead. Brock Hirsche picked up the lone assist. The Cougars out-shot the Giants 15-5.

In the third, Troy Bourke fired home his 18th goal of the year taking a bounce off the end boards in front and beating Brendan Jensen on the blocker side. Inglis picked up the only assist on the Bourke goal at 11:45. James Dobrowolski made it 6-0 Cougars at 17:03 firing home a rebound that was kicked out from a Taylor Makin shot from the left face-off circle. Dobrowolski picked up his 18th goal of the year. Inglis then collected his hat-trick goal at 19:12, taking a pass from Bourke in front of the Giants goal and scoring his 32nd goal of the season. Inglis gets the Cougars second hat-trick this season, with Bourke scoring the other on November 26 against Regina. With the Cougars up 7-0, Makin scored another Cougars goal with 18 seconds to play, going five-hole on Jensen for his fifth goal of the year. Greg Fraser picked up the only assist. The only question was Rimmer's shut-out bid, which was successful for his fourth shut-out of the season and the Cougars sixth, blocking a season low 16 shots allowed in the game and only needing two in the third period. The Cougars had 12 shots in the third for 32 in the game. The Cougars pick up their 30th win of the season and sit alone in eighth spot in the Western Conference, the final playoff position, two points ahead of Kamloops and three up on Seattle. The Cougars went 1-for-4 on the power play and the Giants were 0-for-6.

The Cougars and Thunderbirds collide for a big meeting Saturday in Kent, Washington. The Cougars finish the trip in Tri-City Sunday before ending the season with a home-and-home against Kamloops March 18 and 19, with the Cougars hosting the second game. Puck drop is 7:00pm at CN Centre and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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Posted on Saturday, March 12, 2011 02:59 AM in Sports by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Palopu on March 12 2011 8:38 AM

Would it be fair to say that because Vancouver has a lock on the play-offs, they did not field their best team????

The score would indicae this is so.

Posted by: faxman on March 12 2011 8:45 AM

Scoring goals has not been the Cougars issue this year. Stopping the other team has been their problem.

Posted by: Dragonmaster on March 12 2011 9:59 AM

Musta been a shift in the space-time continuum.

Posted by: canuckfan1974 on March 12 2011 3:28 PM

I'm a huge hockey fan for the canucks i use to be huge supporter for the cougars when they first moved up and when things were looking good but for the past 5 years I went to maybe 1 or 2 games a year. I'm not a big fan of the family owned business, If you look at any other team out there from CHL,AHL or even the NHL when a team is doing bad for a long period of time we all know the coach is the first to go and we've seen many of them that come and gone. Now if a team continues to go down the same path most Owners will look at replacing the GM and we know that will never happen. Other teams CHL,AHL,NHL that have they showed inprovement on the other hand the cougars never have and we never seen a doniment team in the west conference then a doniment fighting for 8th place. But every year if the team makes it to the playoffs thats when the bandwagoners flock to buy tickets which is so unreal, not me. The free press front page of prince george in the run for hosting the memorial cup 2013 lol oh god like that will happen anytime soon not unless the manegment makes a complete overhaul. The cougars get an average of 2000 a game and thats sad i know cause people like me and theres a lot of us who feel the same way that things need to change in the upper management area but we won't see that cause thompson is married to the owners daughter and shows family comes first to them but in a business like this the team should come first not family like as calgary's situation the family wasn't working and a sutter was fired and look at them now there looking a little better even though it was a coach and gm family combo. Whats that coaches name that coached kelowna to memorial cup victory not long ago and his name was one of a few on a short list for coaches for the cougars a couple seasons agon well that fell through cause aparentley he wanted the coach and gm position and for a guy who has an incredible record and a memorial cup win would have been good but brodsky couldn't fire a son inlaw. year and year out we don't get better and game and game out an empty arena and the only way we change that is change in the upper management someone new a fresh start more of prince george would be more interested and the fanbase will return but under family rule it may take a while. So it was nice to see the 8-0 score but things were looking good for the team at the start of the season compared to fighting for the 8th spot as usual to us this 8-0 win means nothing and i believe it will come down to the home and home games with the blazers and i have a feeling the blazers will come up with the win this year. we need to get rid of brodsky and family rule... it's not working we need new owners new gm i hope brewer hamhuis and the gang put another offer on the team or the city of PG to until a real owner is found who can put the team first over family.