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Royals goalie Outhouse flush with success

Cougars' power play stymied in 3-1 loss to Victoria

The force of the shot sent Griffen Outhouse’s helmet and goalie mask flying and before he could react, Kody McDonald got to his own rebound and dumped it into the open net.

Outhouse was mad. He thought one of the on-ice officials should have blown the play dead before McDonald had a chance to score spoil his shutout.

But the Victoria Royals goalie put it behind him and refocused, knowing the door had opened for McDonald’s first-place Prince George Cougars. For the first time in Saturday’s game, after their stumbling, bumbling Keystone Cops comedy-of-errors performance the previous two periods, the Cougars saw a glimmer of hope.

All of sudden, the Cougar gang that failed to get even a sniff of a good scoring chance in more than 12 minutes of power-play time in the opening 20 minutes turned into an angry swarm of buzz bombers, and it was Outhouse’s job to guard the honey.

He held up to the onslaught, making 31 saves to preserve a 2-1 victory over the Cougars, ended the Royals’ four-game losing streak Saturday in front of a CN Centre crowd of 3,807.

“The start was hard for everyone, we were on the PK for more than half of that first period,” said Outhouse, picked as the game’s first star.

“The PK is either going to shift the momentum one way or another and we did a good job killing it and from there we took the momentum. It was a tough game, obviously they’re one of the top teams in the country and it took everyone. Everyone was on board today and that’s why we came out on top.”

Outhouse seemed to get better as the game wore on. Although the Cougars’ disorganized mess of a power play didn’t give him much adversity with the extra skater, the 18-year-old from Williams Lake was Victoria’s best penalty-killer, with plenty of shot-blocking, sticks-in-the-lane help from forwards Regan Nagy, Carter Folk, Jared Dmitriw and Jack Walker.

“I thought we grinded it out, we came in here knowing it was going to be a tough weekend for us, they’re playing extremely well,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry, whose team is 1-3-0-0 against the Cats this season.

Lowry knows his team was lucky to have killed off all seven of their penalties. That included a five-minute major and game misconduct to defenceman Ryan Gagnon, 4:50 into the game, when he flattened Bartek Bison with a charge that left him dazed and injured on the ice.

“That’s not the way we’re going to play most nights and have positive results – we took a couple undisciplined penalties at critical times,” said Lowry. “But we had a lot of guys that stepped up, a lot of guys that sacrificed their bodies getting into shooting lanes and we executed our plan the way we wanted.”

Both Royals goals came in the second period. Defenceman Mitchell Prowse ended a sustained attack to start the period and slapped in a shot from the high slot, seconds after teammate Dante Hannoun rang the goalpost.

The Prince George penalty-killers, having held the Royals without a goal in nine power-play opportunities the previous night in a 4-2 Cougars’ win, finally bent, and that led to the winning goal. McDonald and Cougars defenceman Shane Collins were both in the box serving minors when Ryan Peckford gained the puck in front of the net and let go a low wrister that caught the net just inside the post behind Ty Edmonds, 8:47 into the second.

The Cougars’ specialists on the power play were often their own worst enemies, flubbing passes, whiffing on shots, mishandling the puck at the blueline and failing to get the puck in deep. 

“Special teams are a big deal in this league and we didn’t win the special teams battle and it cost us a hockey game,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “It’s just five guys have to outwork four and we didn’t want to put the work in tonight. We only played two periods of hockey this weekend and we were fortunate to get out of (Friday’s) game with a victory. We weren’t good enough (Saturday).”

McDonald took three penalties in the second period alone, two of which showed a lack of discipline, and might have been a candidate for the coach’s doghouse but earned himself a reprieve with his third-period goal.

Down by only a goal, the Cougars responded by showing some real urgency in their attack. They controlled much of the play in the final period and responded with more than a handful of premium chances but couldn’t beat Outhouse. He made at least four great saves off Jesse Gabrielle and turned away labelled drives from McDonald and Brad Morrison.

The real game-saver for Outhouse came with 15 seconds left and he didn’t have to touch the puck. Brogan O’Brien took the puck in across the line and went behind the net to set up Jansen Harkins, who launched wicked shot that beat the goalie to the far side but not the goalpost. It was just one of those nights when the Cougar stars failed to align.

“I thought the way the games were flowing, I thought we did our best to  come back in the third (period), especially (Friday) and we just couldn’t get it done today,” said McDonald. “We have to get back to five outworking four on the power play and today it was a little lackadaisical. We’ll address it in practice and make sure to come out harder. We have to make sure special teams are winning us games.”  

The Cougars (20-7-2-0) remained first in the B.C. Division, 10 points ahead of the Royals (15-13-2-0), who ended a four-game losing streak.

LOOSE PUCKS: For the record, the officials did make the right call not whistling the play dead when Outhouse lost his helmet. The rule states that when the attacking team has the puck and the opposing goalie loses his head protection, the play won’t be stopped if the attacking team has a scoring chance, which the Cougars did. If it wasn’t a scoring chance or if the Royals had possession of the puck, play would have been stopped immediately… The Brandon Wheat Kings will visit the Cougars at CN Centre on Wednesday.

Saturday’s WHL summary

Royals 2 at Cougars 1

First Period

No scoring.

Penalties – Walker Vic (tripping) 1:38, Gagnon Vic (charging major, game misconduct, major served by Wegleitner) 4:50, Masella Vic (delay of game) 10:17, Reddekopp Vic (roughing) 13:48, Khomenko PG (high-sticking) 16:44, Walker Vic (roughing) 18:47.

Second Period

1. Victoria, Prowse 2 (Phillips, Walker) 1:31

2. Victoria, Peckford 8 (Walker, Reddekopp) 8:47 (pp)

Penalties – McDonald PG (tripping) 7:24, Collins PG (roughing) 7:58, McDonald PG (roughing) 16:33, McDonald PG (charging) 19:07, Reddekopp Vic (double high-sticking) 19:59.

Third Period

3. Prince George, McDonald 7 (O’Brien) 5:49

Penalties – None.

Shots on goal by

Victoria           6          16        6          -28

Prince George10        6          16        -32

Goal – Victoria, Outhouse (W,15-10-1-0); Prince George, Edmonds (L,16-41-0).

Power plays – VI: 0-5; PG: 0-7

Referees – Tyler Adair, Fraser Lawrence; Linesmen – Alex Teichrob, Nick Bilko.

Attendance – 3,807.

Scratches – Victoria: D Scott Walford (injured, upper body), RW Blake Barger (upper body), C Tyler Soy (upper body), D Brayden Pachel (healthy); Prince George: LW Jackson Leppard (healthy), D Brendan Guhle (called up to Buffalo, NHL).