It took about 10 minutes for the Prince George LJ Contracting Cougars to start filling the Prince Rupert Seawolves' net, but once they did, there was no stopping them.
Cougars defenceman Bobby Legare pulled the trigger for the first goal and the Cougars added two more in a three-minute span of the first period on the way to a 6-1 victory in the opening game of the Hart Home Hardware midget tier 2 hockey tournament Friday morning at Kin 1.
Playing on a line with first-year midgets Dean Whitcomb and Logan Morris, second-year forward Garrett Hilton led the way offensively with a three-goal outing and Rob Raju and Parker Dowhy added singles for Prince George. With the Cougars comfortably ahead 6-0, Cole Etchison finally managed to put one past goalie Matthew Ens.
"We're a real young, smaller team - half the team are first-year midgets - but we're fairly quick and we're making progress," said Cougars head coach Wes Scott.
"Matthew Ens played a real solid game for us in goal, it could have been a different game if he didn't play so well, especially when the game was at zero he made three really good saves really early. Prince Rupert had a lot of opportunities. We hadn't played in a few weeks."
It was the first meeting of the season between the teams.
The Cougars went on to face Terrace in the late afternoon game and lost 3-2, outshooting Terrace 29-25.
The Cougars hadn't played since they won the Quesnel tournament three weeks ago with a 5-4 shootout victory over Williams Lake.
Prince George will face Williams Lake today at 4:15 p.m. at Kin 1, preceded by the Prince George-Smithers game today at 8:45 a.m. Both are at Kin 1.
"I would say the favourite team might be Smithers, they have a strong group," said Scott. "It's actually really competitive, we're even up against Terrace, Williams Lake and Quesnel. If somebody has a bad day they'll pay for it and if somebody has a good day they'll be rewarded for it. We're all that close."
The Cougars wrap up their round-robin schedule Sunday at 11:15 a.m. against Quesnel.
The first- and second-place finishers in preliminary round meet in the final 3 p.m. at Kin 1.
