The Prince George Cougars saw their five-game win streak on home ice end as they fell 6-1 to the Vancouver Giants Wednesday at CN Centre.
Vancouver got out to a quick start, getting a power-play tally from Jaden Lipinski at 4:12. At 12:52, Ty Halaburda picked the pocket of a Cougar and netted a short-handed goal to make it 2-0 Giants. Lipinski then added his second of the game at 19:11 to give the Giants a 3-0 cushion after one period.
At 5:49 of the second period, Prince George got some life with Ondrej Becher firing home his 13th of the year off a setup from Riley Heidt and Koehn Ziemmer to make the game 3-1. The Giants, however, responded with Jakob Oreskovic scoring his second of the season at 7:46 to restore the three goal lead.
Just over 10 minutes later, at 17:45, Giants blueliner Mazden Leslie kickstarted a 2-on-1 and spotted Lipinski who scored his hat-trick goal to put the Giants ahead 5-1 after two. The Cougars had their chances in the second frame, outshooting the Giants 19-6.
Vancouver added one more late in the third period, courtesy of Adam Titlbach on the power-play.
The Giants and the Cougars will play the rubber match of their three-game series on Friday in Langley, before the Cougars head to the Okanagan to play the Rockets in Kelowna on Saturday.
In other WHL games Wednesday, the Edmonton Oil Kings beat the Regina Pats 6-1, the Wenatchee Wild defeated the Tri-City Americans 5-2 and the Everett Silvertips edged the Prince Albert Raiders 4-3.
SILVERTIPS 4 RAIDERS 3
Jesse Heslop's second-period goal stood up as the game-winner for the Silvertips. Heslop also had two assists in the game.
Carter Bear, Teague Patton and Austin Roest each contributed a goal to Everett's win while Silvertips goalie Ethan Chadwick stopped 23 shots.
Sloan Stanick scored a pair of goals and Niall Crocker also scored for Prince Albert.
Raiders netminder Chase Coward stopped 39 shots in the loss.
WILD 5 AMERICANS 2
Conor Geekie led the Wild with a pair of goals. Hayden Moore, Kenta Isogai and Matthew Savoie each scored a goal for Wenatchee.
Wild netminder Daniel Hauser stopped 27 of 29 shots.
Pasha Bocharov and Jordan Gavin scored for the Americans. Goalie Kyle Kelsey made 33 saves.
OIL KINGS 6 PATS 1
Oil Kings goaltender Kolby Hay's 28 saves helped Edmonton snap a three-game losing streak with a road victory.
Edmonton got contributions from six different goal scorers — Skyler Bruce, Smyth Rebman, John Szabo, Cole Miller, Ty Nash and Marc Lajoie.
Captain Tanner Howe countered with Regina's lone goal. Ewan Huet and Kelton Pyne split duties in the Pats net with Huet stopped 18 of 23 and Pyne 12 of 13.
The Canadian Press
