WHEAT KINGS 8 – COUGARS 3
Friday night in Brandon, MB the Prince George Cougars dropped an 8-3 game to the Brandon Wheat Kings. Ivan Provorov, John Quenneville and Jayce Hawryluk each had four points for the home side while Jesse Gabrielle, Tate Olson, amd Jansen Harkins had multi-point games for the Cougars who are now 2-2-1-0 on their trip through the prairies.
Brandon led 4-0 after one. First it was Jayce Hawryluk at 5:07 who scored on a one-timer, and then John Quenneville, Macoy Erkamps and Jayce Hawryluk all scored within a five minute and 27 second span late in the period to open up the four goal cushion. Prior to all four of those Brandon goals, the Cougars thought they’d taken a 1-0 lead, but a goal from Jesse Gabrielle was disallowed when Wheat Kings netminder Jordan Papirny slid into his right post and knocked the net off it’s pegs.
21 seconds into the second period the Cougars got on the board when Tate Olson buried his sixth of the season off the rush from the left circle. Both Jesse Gabrielle and Chase Witala assisted. Then a few minutes later on a power play, Jansen Harkins backhanded home a Tate Olson rebound past the left pad of Papirny for his 19th, and the Cougars were back within two.
11 seconds later though Brandon restored their three goal lead off a goal from Nolan Patrick at 6:02. Prince George outshot Brandon 19-11 in the second period, but skated into the second intermission trailing by a 5-2 score.
Jesse Gabrielle struck on the power play 4:48 into the third period to help move the Cougars back within striking distance, but less than two minutes later the Wheat Kings again found an answer when Reid Duke raced wide on the Cougars defense, skated in close on goaltender Ty Edmonds and roofed a backhand underneath the crossbar for his 27th and a 6-3 Brandon lead.
Jayce Hawryluk and John Quenneville added late goals 12 seconds apart to secure the 8-3 victory. Prince George outshot Brandon 38-35 through 60 minutes. The Cougars would end up two-for-nine on the man advantage while Brandon went two-for-seven on their chances.
The Cougars record now sits at 31-20-2-1. The good news is that the Cougars have a quick turnaround, and will take the ice Saturday night in Regina to wrap up their lengthy road swing.
