Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Cougars lose to ‘Hawks in shootout

How fitting that this one went to a shootout.
Sports-CougarsGamer.jpg

How fitting that this one went to a shootout.

The Prince George Cougars wanted to give the fans full value for showing up at the rink Friday at CN Centre to watch them play the Portland Winterhawks and packed 65 minutes of A-grade hockey and a shootout to reward them.

Too bad about that ending. It spoiled an otherwise spectacular evening for Cats' goalie Ty Edmonds.

Chase De Leo scored the only goal of the shootout to lift the Winterhawks to a 4-3 win over the Cougars. Miles Koules forced overtime when he tied it for Portland with 3:06 left on a low snap shot from the slot.

The energy level from both teams was electrifying from the get-go and the fans, all 3,858 of them, including a posse of 38 from the Winterhawks Booster Club, fed off of it.

The goals came fast and furious in the first period and the Cougars struck three times on the power play to take a 3-2 lead into the intermission. Paul Bittner put Portland on top first with an even-strength tip-in of a shot from Oliver Bjorkstrand.

The Cougars countered on their first power-play chance. Tyler Mrkonjic kicked the puck from his skate to his stick and shot from point-blank range through the legs of 'Hawks goalie Aiden Hill.

De Leo restored the lead for Portland on another deflection but Cougar defenceman Josh Connolly had an answer for that. Connolly, making his first start at home since being traded last week from Kamloops, took a pass from Jansen Harkins and took it in alone, wiring a hard wrist shot high to the opposite side of the net to tie it up.

Four minutes later, Chase Witala cashed in a rebound with Hawks winger Alex Schoenborn cooling his heels in the penalty box, a lead that would last until late in the third period.

Edmonds continued to give the Cougars lights-out goaltending in the second period. With four minutes left in the middle frame, Petan set up Bjorkstrand for a one-timer that Edmonds smothered with his leg pad and sprung to his feet in time to get the angle on Bjorkstrand and stop the rebound.

Edmonds was busy again in the third period but he made it obvious he was in the right zone to turn in one of his best goaltending efforts of the season. Of the 39 shots the 18-year-old from Winnipeg faced before the shootout there had to be at least 20 golden scoring opportunities.

The Cougars reaped early returns on the deal that brought hometown boy Connolly from the Blazers in exchange for fellow 19-year-old defenceman Marc McNulty.

Connolly was tough on Portland puck-carriers and his great puck sense and quick acceleration kickstarted many of the Cougars breakouts.

The win improved Portland's record to 24-19-0-3, while the Cougars dropped to 20-23-1-1.

The same teams battle again tonight at CN Centre.

LOOSE PUCKS: David Soltes played his first game for the Cougars since he left the team in mid-December to play for Slovakia at the world junior tournament and the 19-year-old right winger had some added incentive to give it his best effort. Sitting in the Cougars booth in the press box were his father Ladislav, sister Dominika Soltesova and his girlfriend Nikola Mikitova, who made the trip from Kosice, Slovakia. Soltes, who missed two games with a lower-body injury, drew first-line duty on a line with Witala and Zach Pochiro and played the left point on the Cougars' top power-play unit, assisting on Mrkonjic's goal... Cougars second-year winger Brad Morrison played his 100th WHL game. The 17-year-old Prince George minor hockey product assisted on Mrkonjic's goal to raise his point total to 33 in 39 games... The Cougars recognized the contributions of the three Winterhawks who played in the world juniors - Bjorkstrand (Denmark), De Leo (United States) and Petan (Canada), who drew a roaring ovation from the crowd.