The Prince George Cougars recovered from a hard-fought first period to deliver a 6-2 spanking to the Seattle Thunderbirds on Tuesday night at CN Centre.
Tensions were high after a brawl broke out 11 seconds after the puck dropped in the first period between the Cougars' Colby McAuley and the T-birds' Keegan Kolesar. Both players received a game misconduct for the donnybrook.
Four minutes later Chase Witala scored the first goal of the game for the Cats, with an assist of Joseph Carvalho.
But Seattle kept the pressure up, outshooting the Cougars 11 to seven in the first period -including a shot by Mathew Barzel that beat Cats' goalie Ty Edmonds.
After a chippy first period that also saw T-bird Scott Eansor ejected from the game, the Cats settled in to the business of scoring goals in the second.
Kody McDonald knocked one in for the Cats in under a minute, and picked up a second unanswered goal with a minute and 18 seconds left on the clock in the period.
Tate Olsen, Bartek Bison, Jansen Harkins and Luke Harrison earned assists on the goals.
Headed into the third period with a 3-1 lead, Harkins took advantage of a penalty shot early in the period to put the Cats up 4-1.
Thirty seconds later McDonald scored another goal to earn a hattrick, with the help of Harrison and Sam Ruopp.
The T-birds' captain Jerret Smith finally answered with a goal of his own just before the halfway point in the third period, but it was too little, too late for Seattle.
The Cougars outshot the T-birds 26-24.
The teams have a rematch tonight at 7 p.m. at CN Centre.
