The Prince George Cougars were looking for a light, something to guide them out of that dark deep hole they had dug for themselves.
As it turned out, the Seattle Thunderbirds offered no such salvation. Instead, they brought their shovels to the rink at CN Centre Friday and tossed more dirt on top of the Cougars in a 9-2 laugher that extended the Cats' losing skid to 11 games.
Robert Lipsbergs and Matt Barzal were at their merciless best in burying the Cougars.
Lipsbergs picked up two goals and two assists in his best display of offense since returning to the WHL in January from the Stockton Thunder semipro ranks. Barzal, who carries the weight of NHL projections as a first-rounder in the June draft did nothing
but live up to the hype while collecting four assists, his first points since an off-ice knee injury that forced him to miss nearly three months.
An eventful first period that featured three fights and five goals set the tone, and it was anything but music to the Cougars' ears.
Seattle scored four times in eight minutes and starting goalie Ty Edmonds was given the hook, replaced after the third goal by rookie Tavin Grant
Held pointless in four games, it was only a matter of time before Barzal got himself onto the scoresheet. Right after a successful penalty kill, Barzal spotted Lipsbergs breaking down the right wing alone and fed him a perfect cross-ice pass. Lipsbergs cut into the slot and beat Ty Edmonds with a high wrist shot with 11 minutes gone.
The Cougars evened the count on their third power play of the period, a slick pass across the goalmouth from Jansen Harkins to linemate Brad Morrison, who chipped in his 19th of the season. Not known for their offence, the T-birds kept clicking in the Cougars' end and Ryan Gropp took advantage of a nimble pass along the wall from Scott Eansor.
Then Lipsbergs made it a 3-1 game, tracking down Barzal's chip pass over a stick, Edmonds took a seat on the bench at that point.
Eansor added to the total with 58 seconds left in the period after Grant gave up a fat rebound that landed on the stick of Keegan Kolesar standing on the goal line. Kolesar had time to send the puck over to Eansor, left unguarded in the slot.
As if that wasn't enough adversity for a Cougars team with only one win in 13 games in January, Kolesar scored on a weak backhander that caught Grant out of position 47 seconds into the second period. Not long after that, at 3:37, Shea Theodore made it a 6-1 count with a shot that deflected in off Grant's trapper.
It got even more grim for the Cougars when Harkins, the Cats' leading scorer, limped off favouring his left leg after blocking a shot from Ethan Bear with 2:13 gone in the period.
Harkins eventually got back into the game but the same could not be said about Josh Connolly, the Cougars top defenceman and power-play quarterback. Connolly lost his cool and slashed Eansor, drawing a five-minute major and game misconduct before the second period was three minutes old. Later in the period, Josh Anderson got an early shower for a ill-advised hit to the head on Calvin Spencer, leaving the Cougars with just five defencemen to finish the game.
Turner Ottenbreit and Kolesar, both on power plays, added to the carnage. Seattle scored five goals on seven second-period shots at Grant, who sat out the third period.
The Cougars, who played most of the second period shorthanded, were held to just one shot. Spencer and Cougars Tyler Mrkonjic traded goals in the third.
Shots ended up 28-23 in Seattle's favour as Logan Flodell picked up his first WHL win.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars will welcome back captain Sam Ruopp in tonight's rematch with the T-birds. Ruopp, a key figure on the Cougars blueline, served out his five-game suspension for a kneeing major he drew in a game against Everett Jan. 20.
