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Giants expose Cats' special team woes

The Prince George Cougars were searching for the Compound W Sunday night in Vancouver. A bad case of warts has taken root in their special teams and it's causing the Cougars significant pain.
Jai erricson
Jai Erricson

The Prince George Cougars were searching for the Compound W Sunday night in Vancouver.

A bad case of warts has taken root in their special teams and it's causing the Cougars significant pain. Sunday's 6-1 road loss to the Vancouver Giants only served to highlight the Cougars' penalty-related woes.

The Cougars might have kept it close if only they'd been able to kill penalties. But they had the penalty box occupied when Carter Popoff connected for the tying goal late in the first period, his first of two on the night, and when Jackson Houck and rookie Ryely McKinstry added to the Vancouver lead. The Giants finished 3-for-5 on the power play, which now ranks fourth in the WHL with a 28 per cent success rate.

To make matters worse for the Cougars, they allowed a shorthanded goal from Thomas Foster late in the second period, which made it a 4-1 game. Prince George is now tied with Vancouver and Kootenay, each having allowed a league-worst three shorthanded goals.

The Cougars' power play is operating at an 'efficiency' rate of 12.1 per cent, 20th worst in the 22-team Western Hockey League. If that's not bad enough, consider their penalty killing. Through seven games Cougars have been scored on 18 times in the 46 power-play chances they've given their opponents. Do the math and that works out to a league-worst 60.9 per cent success rate in killing off penalties. Vancouver ranks next-lowest in that category, with a 72.7 per cent kill ratio.

"They scored four goals on special teams, with three on the power play and one shorthanded, and that's not easy to come back from," said Cougars assistant coach Mike Hengen. "I know we've got a few young guys out there that we are playing and are doing a great job for us but it seems to be the veterans making the mistakes and that's pretty tough right now."

The Giants gave up one power-play goal in four chances, the opening goal of the game -- the only offence the Cougars could muster when Jari Erricson potted the rebound of a Sam Ruopp shot.

Joel Hamilton also scored on Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds and added two assists. The Giants outshot the Cougars 39-21, holding a 15-3 edge in the third period.

The win improved the Giants' record to 4-2-0-0, while the Cougars fell to 3-4-0-0. The teams meet again this weekend in a two-game set at CN Centre.

Saturday in Spokane, Erricson and David Soltes each scored twice and Chase Witala filled his boots with a four-point haul to lead the Cougars to a 6-2 win over the Spokane Chiefs.

Erricson, a 20-year-old Prince George native who missed most of last season with a concussion, gave the Cougars a 4-0 lead 36 seconds into the third period before the Chiefs found their way onto the scoreboard a minute later when Liam Stewart beat Edmonds, the first of Stewart's two goals in the game.

Slovakian import Soltes countered with his team-leading fourth and fifth goals of the season to put the game out of reach. Soltes missed all but 15 games last season with a knee injury.

Witala opened the scoring late in the first period on a pass from rookie Colby McAuley after a Spokane giveaway. Jansen Harkins, who centred a line with Erricson and Witala, also scored for the Cougars and picked up two assists.

It was the first regulation loss of the season the Chiefs, whose record dipped to 2-1-1-0.

Edmonds made 21 saves while earning his third win of the season. Garret Hughson and Tyson Verhelst, who played the third period, combined to make 30 saves.

LOOSE PUCKS: It was the Cougars' first win Spokane since December 2011... Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur registered his 600th career WHL win as a head coach last weekend in Spokane, a 3-2 triumph over the Tri-City Americans, becoming the fourth coach to join the WHL's 600 club. Nachbaur, who grew up in Prince George, now sports a record of 600 wins 397 losses and 73 ties or overtime/shootout losses... The Cougars' next game is Wednesday night at home against the (1-3-0-1) Lethbridge Hurricanes.