Cougars Fall 6-4 To the Giants.
Tuesday night in Prince George, the Prince George Cougars dropped a 6-4 decision to the Vancouver Giants. Thomas Foster led the way with three assists for the Giants while goaltender Cody Porter turned aside 21 of the 22 shots he faced in relief of Payton Lee. The Cougars got two goals from Chase Witala, and multi-point games from three others in defeat. Despite the loss, the Cougars badly outshot the Giants 37-21.
The first period completely belonged to the Cougars who outshot the Giants 11-6 and outscored them 2-0. Jari Erricson grabbed the game’s first goal just 1:58 in when he raced down the right wing and tried to center the puck in front of the goal. The puck careened off of Vancouver goaltender Payton Lee and in for his team high 12th of the season, and the Cougars had a quick lead.
Prince George continued to apply strong pressure and would be rewarded again in the final seconds of the period when Brad Morrison’s shot from the top of the right circle was deflected home by David Soltes. Soltes’ eighth goal of the season came with just one second left in the first period.
Chase Witala extended the Cougars lead to 3-0 at the 6:16 of the second period on a power play, and that goal spelt the end of the night for Giants goaltender Payton Lee who was yanked after surrendering three goals on 16 shots faced.
In came goaltender Cody Porter who was tested early and often for Vancouver. The young netminder made some timely saves to keep the Giants within reach, and it would pay off.
First Carter Popoff got the Giants on the board when he knocked home a Dmitry Osipov rebound off a two-on-one rush. Then Dalton Sward grabbed his fifth of the season while shorthanded to move the Giants within one goal.
Early in the third, Clayton Kirichenko beat Tavin Grant with a shot from the right point for his second, and a 3-0 deficit was now a 3-3 tie.
Matt Bellerive gave Vancouver the lead when he scored right off an offensive zone faceoff at 9:54 for Vancouver, which spelt the end of the night for Tavin Grant. In came Jared Rathjen and the Cougars were able to respond at 17:32 when Chase Witala tipped home a Jari Erricson shot past Porter for his second of the night and 11th of the season.
28 seconds later though Vancouver countered when Shaun Dosanjh fired a shot from the left point that dipped on Jared Rathjen and went past him for his first of the season.
Arvin Atwal added an empty net goal to clinch Vancouver’s eighth victory of the season.
Vancouver’s power play finished two-for-five while the Cougars went one-for-eight on their chances. The win improves Vancouver’s record to 9-12 while the Cougars record now sits at 11-12.
Tomorrow night the Cougars will have revenge on their minds as they welcome the same Vancouver Giants for their rematch. It will also mark the 2014-15 Cougars debut for forward Zach Pochiro who had hoped to dress Tuesday, but got caught in some flight delays.
Puck drops tomorrow night at 7:00 PM from the CN Centre.
