Four unanswered goals to start the first period was not what the doctor ordered for the Prince George Cougars.
Not when they were trying to knock off the powerful Brandon Wheat Kings Friday night in their own barn.
It put the Cats in a deep hole and they never recovered, losing 8-3.
Jayce Hawryluk scored two of his three goals in the opening 20 minutes, one which came on a power play just two seconds before the intermission. He was standing behind the goal line, while John Quenneville and Macoy Erkamps, on a 5-on-3 power play, also put pucks behind Cougar goalie Ty Edmonds to put the Wheaties ahead 4-0.
Nolan Patrick, Reid Duke, Hawryluk and Quenneville, with his second of the game, also scored in the final 40 minutes for Brandon
The Cougars appeared to have opened the scoring a few minutes into the game when Jesse Gabrielle stripped the puck from a falling Brandon defenceman just inside the blueline, setting up a 2-on-0 break with Chase Witala, both 32-goal scorers heading into Friday's game.
Gabrielle fed a goalmouth pass across to Witala who immediately gave it back to Gabrielle, who dumped it into the open net behind Jordan Papirny. But the goal was disallowed because the net was dislodged when Papirny hit back on the post with his skate just as Gabrielle let the shot go.
Down by four, the Cougars showed plenty of jump to start the second period and got themselves on the scoreboard just 21 seconds into period. Tate Olson stepped in from the point and wired a shot in off the post.
The Cougars made it a 4-2 game 5:51 into the second on a power play. Olson got a hard shot on goal and big rebound kicked out to Jansen Harkins, who went wide and lifted a backhand shot in behind Papirny. But just 11 seconds later, Hawryluk fell while carrying the puck into the slot in the Cougars' end and the pass landed on the stick of Patrick, who made a slick goalmouth move to get Edmonds down on the ice and beat the Cougar goalie with a low shot.
Cougars centre Brogan O'Brien got up slowly 10:53 into the second period after he took a vicious crunch into the side boards by a charging Hawryluk, who got away with only a minor penalty on the play.
The Cougars got to within two goals with a power-play strike 4:48 into the third period. Gabrielle collected on his own rebound and scored on a high shot to the near corner. Olson drew an assist for his third point of the game. But less than two minutes later, Duke picked up his 27th of the season, fooling Edmonds with a backhand deke. Hawryluk completed the hat trick late with six minutes to play with an empty-netter while the Cats were on a power play. Quenneville capped the scoring with another shorthanded goal.
Shots were 38-35 in the Cougars' favour.
Brandon defenceman Ivan Provorov picked up four assists and now has 20 points in 12 games since his return after playing for Russia at the world junior tournament.
The Wheat Kings (33-15-2-2) remained second in the Eastern Conference, while the Cougars' record dropped to 31-20-2-1. Prince George started the day Friday third in the Western Conference one point ahead of the Everett Silvertips, who hosted Kamloops on Friday.
The Cougars wrap up their six-game East Division tour tonight (5 p.m. PT) against the Pats in Regina.
