The Fortwood Homes peewee Cougars earned a split during a pair of weekend exhibition games in Mackenzie.
The Cougars, a Tier 4 rep team from the Prince George Minor Hockey Association, defeated Mackenzie 12-4 and then fell 6-5 to Chetwynd in overtime.
"The boys played hard both games, we rolled through the lines and tried to keep everyone fresh with the back-to-back games," said Cougars head coach Denny Astorino. "We ran out of gas a bit. Our defence was solid and we got good goaltending. The players are learning a lot about positional play, playing without the puck, and how important it is to keep the shifts short so we can keep the energy level higher. We've seen a lot of improvements already."
In the win, Ashton Kraska fired a hat trick and added an assist and Zach Swanson had two goals and two helpers. The Cougars also got goals from Skylar Miller (2), Quinten Astorino (2), Nolan Dancey, Liam O'Beirne and Colin Desrocher. Ajay Nickolet scored three goals for Mackenzie and Ryan Smith had a single.
In the loss to Chetwynd, Cougars marksmen were Ryan Hampe, Kraska, O'Beirne, Swanson and Desrocher. The Cats had a 4-1 lead after two periods but saw Chetwynd storm back in the third.
