Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
osplay was the theme of Northern FanCon night at CN Centre and dozens of hockey fans arrived at rink Saturday decked out in distinctive disguises.
The Prince George Cougars bought into the festivities too, sporting never-before-seen royal blue jerseys with red and white trim - the perfect outfits to try to turn over a new leaf and lay a beating on the Kamloops Blazers.
And beat them they did, a 7-3 payback pasting in return for all the ill treatment the Blazers had previously shown the Cougars in what had been, until the weekend, a decidedly one-sided affair.
The first three games of the season series in Kamloops weren't even close - the Cougars were outscored 20-4. Friday's game went down to a shootout, a game the Cougars should have won.
Instead, the Blazers played just well enough in spurts to win 4-3 despite getting outshot 47-21.
"We owed them one and I thought we played very good out there, today and yesterday," said Cougars captain Sam Ruopp who assisted on the first two goals Saturday.
"The boys were flying and I'm proud of them. It's huge for our confidence. We're rivals and these divisional games we have to get points out of. It was pretty frustrating (losing in Kamloops) but I'm glad we got the payback we needed."
After a slow beginning, there seemed little doubt the Cougars were going to win. Although they didn't get a shot on goal until Jared Bethune tipped the first one in past goalie Connor Ingram, 10:15 into the game. That was followed six minutes later by a sharp-angle, one-timed laser beam off the stick of Kody McDonald.
In the second period, Bethune fooled Ingram with an outside move and reached around to tuck the puck into the net while standing past the goal line for his second of the game, then Colby McAuley spurred on an early retirement for the Kamloops goalie when he made it a 4-0 game 12:48 into the second period and the rout was on.
"You could tell that our players were eager, they were hungry and ready to go with a little bit of payback for the last game and the previous games in Kamloops and we took it to them," said Cougars assistant coach Roman Vopat. "For the fans it was a great game, very physical with a lot of goals. (Brad) Morrison, (Jansen) Harkins and Bethune had a spectacular game. From start to finish, everybody had a great game and it shows in the end."
The Blazers responded to the goaltending change with a deflection off the leg of Quinn Benjafield, the first shot to elude Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds, making his first start in two weeks since suffering leg injury. Dylan Ferguson came in to relieve Ingram and the Cougars kept coming.
Morrison's backhander from the slot ended his five-game scoring drought before the second intermission and in the third period, newly-minted Cougar Luke Harrison scored on his former team, and Aaron Boyd chipped in with his second of the season.
Down 7-1, the Blazers didn't quit and Spencer Bast and Conner McDonald were rewarded late in the game. McDonald's goal came on a Kamloops power play, which stopped the Cougars short of killing off their 17th straight penalty, dating back to their game in Lethbridge a week earlier.
The Cougars outshot the Blazers 41-27 and easily could have more red-light occasions. The newly-formed line of Harkins centring Bethune on the left side and Morrison on the right was especially deadly. Bethune had two goals and an assist to go with a plus-4 rating (his first multiple-goal game as a Cougar), while the speedy Morrison collected a goal and two assists and Harkins had three helpers - his first three-point game in 2015-16.
"We've tried it (playing together on the same line) a couple times during games and it just seemed to work for us (Saturday)," said Bethune. "We started off pretty good and got the lead and the big thing for us was to not let up. Especially after the last few matches we had against them, it was huge to get (Ingram) out of there because he's a good goalie. I think we just had a lot of good shots and some Grade A chances that we buried."
Ruopp set the tone early for what became a fight-filled game when he nailed Blazer captain Matt Needham with a clean bodycheck. Needham took down Ruopp's number and in a race of the puck deep in Cougar territory he crunched the big defenceman into the end boards with a scary-looking hit from behind to draw the game's first penalty. By game's end, each team had 65 minutes in penalty time.
The win moved the Cougars (13-9-1-1) three points ahead the Blazers (11-9-3-0), who went 11 games without losing in regulation time after an 0-6-0-0 start.
The win on Friday was the 648th career WHL regular season victory for Blazers head coach Don Hay.
He now ranks second on the all-time list behind Ken Hodge (Edmonton, Portland) who had 742 wins. Hay knew his team didn't deserve the two points Saturday.
"We got off to a good start but we fell behind 2-0 and we ended up chasing the game the rest of the way," said Hay. "They competed hard and I thought we kept playing right to the end. I was proud of my guys, they didn't quit and they stood up for themselves, we really played together.
"The goals weren't Connor's fault. Most of P.G's goals came when we had possession of the puck and we turned it over or else we didn't win the loose-puck battles.'
The Cougars now sport a
9-3-0-1 home record and will try to improve on that when they take on the Portland Winterhawks in a two-game set, Tuesday and Wednesday.
