For the eternal optimist riding the Prince George Cougars' bandwagon, the good news from Kennewick, Wash., Sunday night was the Cougars played shutout hockey for 27 minutes 38 seconds against the Tri-City Americans.
But by that time the Americans had their feet up resting comfortably on the furniture at the Toyota Center on the strength of a 7-0 lead which became the final score, spoiling what began as a great weekend for the Cougars, 6-3 winners Saturday night in Portland.
The Cougars knew they had to stay disciplined to counter the fast-skating Americans (1-1-0-0) who were coming off a 4-2 loss Saturday to Spokane. But that strategy failed miserably. The Cougars took 10 minor penalties and the Americans scored on five of their first six power-play opportunities. The Cats went 0-for-2 on the power play.
"I saw a totally different Cougars team, we were the prey not the hunters, I'm very disappointed with the overall performance of the guys," said Cougars assistant coach Roman Vopat.
"When you face a team that has a good power play you have to stay out of the penalty box and our mental mistakes cost us the game. We had 10 minors and they scored five times. That's unacceptable and something we have to work on."
Brian Williams led the way with two goals. Parker Bowles triggered the avalanche with the game's opening goal 6:17 into the first period. Beau McCue, Parker Wotherspoon (on a 5-on-3 advantage), Lucas Nickles and Ty Comrie also found the net.
Sixteen-year-old rookie goalie Tavin Grant came into the game for his WHL debut, replacing Ty Edmonds after Williams scored his first of the season 5:58 gone in the second period with the Cougars two men short to make it 5-0. Comrie beat Grant on the first shot he faced at 6:22, but the Burnaby native allowed just one more goal, an even-strength marker from Williams, 12:22 into the second.
"We did not help out starting goalie so we put a 16-year-old kid and our players did not help him at all," said Vopat. "Unfortunately for him, the first two shots he faced were goals, but after that he rebounded well and made 21 saves out of 23 shots."
The Cougars were outshot 38-14.
Saturday in Portland the Cougars jumped out to a 2-0 lead and got a shorthanded goal in the second period from Jari Erricson and a third-period winner from Haydn Hopkins to hand the Winterhawks their second straight loss. Chase Witala led the Cats with a goal and two assists, while linemate Jansen Harkins had a goal and an assist. The Winterhawks made it close in the third period on goals from Layne Viveiros and Paul Bittner, his second of the game. But Chance Braid connected on the power play 13:42 into the third and Aaron Macklin scored into an empty net.
Edmonds made 31 saves in the Cougars nets while Michael Bullion stopped 28 of 33 Cougar shots he faced.
The Cougars host the Kelowna Rockets in their home opener Friday at CN Centre.
Bryan Allbee didn't waste any time padding his point total as a WHL rookie. The 17-year-old defenceman from Prince George collected his first goal as a member of the Kootenay Ice, scoring at even strength with three seconds left in the second period in a 4-2 loss to the Oil Kings in Edmonton. On Friday in Red Deer Allbee assisted on Austin Vetteri's first-period goal. The Ice went on to beat the Rebels 5-3.
