The Prince George Cougars are trying to climb in the Western Hockey League standings.
They took an important step Friday night in Victoria.
In the first of four consecutive meetings with the Victoria Royals -- who are B.C. Division and Western Conference rivals -- the Cats skated to a 5-4 victory. The Cougars improved to 9-11-1-3 and, in the conference, moved to within one point of the seventh-place Seattle Thunderbirds and to within two points of the sixth-place Royals (12-12-0-0).
The Cougars got two-goal performances from both Brett Roulston and Ryan Hanes. Colin Jacobs also scored for the Cats and Alex Forsberg ended the night with three assists.
"It was one of those games where we shot the puck well, actually, and we got rewarded for the shots that we had," said Cougars head coach Dean Clark.
"Probably the big goal for us was the fifth goal, putting it back to a two-goal lead," Clark added, in reference to Hanes's second of the night at the 15:59 mark of the second period. "That was a huge point in the game for us."
The Cougars played much of the third period without Jacobs, their leading scorer, after he was handed an instigator penally, a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct late in the second. Jacobs was involved in a scrap with Logan Fisher of the Royals.
Steven Hodges, Jamie Crooks, Ben Walker and Brandon Magee replied offensively for Victoria.
The Cougars led 3-1 after the first period and 5-3 after the second. Prince George went 2-for-6 on the power play and Victoria was 1-for-4.
In goal, Mac Engel got the win for the Cougars and pushed his record to 3-6-0-3. Engel made 20 stops, including a critical toe save while the Royals were on a 5-on-3 power play in the third period.
Patrik Polivka started the game for Victoria but was yanked from the crease after the fourth Prince George goal, scored early in the second period by Roulston. Polivka was replaced by Coleman Vollrath. Together, they made 23 saves.
The Cougars lost forward Zach Pochiro to an undisclosed injury in the second period.
The Cats and Royals will play again tonight in Victoria. Next Friday and Saturday, they'll renew acquaintances at CN Centre.
