Brad Morrison picked a fine time to record his first Western Hockey League hat trick.
The 19-year-old right winger's three-goal effort Saturday night in Vancouver made all the difference for the Prince George Cougars in a 6-4 win over the Vancouver Giants.
It was sweet revenge for the Cougars, who lost their first two games of 2016 to the Giants in Prince George, Jan. 2 and 3. The Cats (27-16-1-1) captured all four games of the season series in Vancouver. They've won four straight on the road and 10 of their last 12 away from CN Centre.
The loss dropped the Giants' record to 17-23-3-2.
"Vancouver is a place the Cougars have been beat many times, but we know this year is quite different, obviously," said Morrison "We're an elite team in the league now and those wins on the road aren't too much of a surprise."
The Giants had the Cougars down 4-3 after 40 minutes. They scored three goals on six shots in a 5:19 span early in the second period, two of which were power-play goals from Thomas Foster. Foster's first came 15 seconds into the period and teammate Ty Ronning followed up 30 seconds later at even strength.
But it was a different story in the third period. Kody McDonald got it going with his 12th of the season and fourth goal in the past three games. Morrison took a McDonald pass in the slot and knotted the score 4-4 on a power play for his second of the game, 6:22 into the final period, and iced it into an empty net on a Cats' power play to complete the hat trick with his 17th goal of the season.
"I've had a few multi-goal games but never a hat trick, so it was good to do that," said Morrison, a fourth-round New York Rangers draft pick in 2015." It was fun to get the win as well. We knew (after the second period) they had some life and we gave it to them. We knew we had to be a lot better and we were. It turned out to be a good road game."
The Cougars led 2-1 after 20 minutes. Jesse Gabrielle turned on the jets to catch up to a pass from linemate Chase Witala and tapped in the puck for his 28th of the season to give the Cougars the early lead. Trevor Cox tied it at the 7:19 mark of the first and Morrison restored the lead, making the Giants pay for a turnover in front of the net. His unassisted goal came 13 minutes into the first period.
Ty Edmonds drew his sixth consecutive start in the Cougars' nets. He made 23 saves for his 14th win of the season. The Cougars fired 38 shots on Giants goalie Ryan Kubic.
Special teams loomed large in determining the outcome. The Cougars went 3-for-5 on the power play, while the Giants were 2-for-8. Morrison knows his team can't afford to take that many penalties and expect to win. The Cougars are the most penalized team in the WHL.
"That almost cost us the game tonight," he said. "Penalties like that are sometimes unnecessary. Sometimes we get bad reffing or bad breaks but when it's kind of a consistent thing, obviously it's a problem and that's something we need to work on.
The Cougars will now travel to Kelowna to play the Western Conference-leading Rockets on Tuesday. The Rockets played the Victoria Royals Saturday in the second game of a weekend series in Victoria. The Royals, who began the weekend tied for second place with the Cougars, took the first game Friday 5-4.
Cougars defenceman Josh Anderson limped off the ice after sustaining a shoulder injury late in the first period and did not return. Cougars forward Jared Bethune was left with a bleeding nose after getting high-sticked at the end of the game by Giants defenceman Dmitry Osipov. Osipov received a two-minute minor penalty.
