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HomeNewsColina scores twice as Cougars (barely) knock off Victoria
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Colina scores twice as Cougars (barely) knock off Victoria

By Brendan Pawliw
(File Photo. Former Prince George Cougars foward Ilijah Colina holds up some teddy bears. (Photo supplied by Brendan Pawliw, MyPGNow.com staff)

Ilijah Colina picked the most wonderful time of the year to find his scoring touch.

The 19-year-old forward from North Delta, BC scored the Teddy Bear and Toque toss goal along with the game-winner to give the Prince George Cougars a 4-2 win over the Victoria Royals in front 3,395 fans at CN Centre on Saturday.

Colina let a wrist shot go where it squirted under the arm of Royals netminder Shane Farkas, which sent all the desired items onto the ice.

“It feels great. It’s a game that happens only once a year and there is only one guy that can score it, I’m happy it was me but it would awesome if anyone else scored it.”

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After falling 3-2 to the Royals in a shootout on Friday, the Cougars stuck with the gameplan despite falling behind 2-1 during the second period.

Carson Miller and Gary Haden found the back of the net against Taylor Gauthier.

Undeterred, Prince George clawed right back before the end of the middle frame when Nikita Krivokrasov was the beneficiary of a Connor Bowie feed and evened the score at 2-2.

Colina came through in a clutch situation once again at 6:17 of third period rifling home a hard wrist shot past Farkas after receiving a feed from Tyson Upper.

“That’s a guy who has been through a lot (Colina), he’s a really well-liked guy in the room and I am super happy for him and everything that he has overcome in the last little bit and I think he’s a great player,” said Gauthier.

Oddly enough, Gauthier recorded two assists in the game and was also named the game’s third star.

“I was just trying to save the puck and guys ended up going down the ice and scoring but I will take whatever points I can get,” joked Gauthier.

Bowie added the insurance marker into an empty Victoria net with 27 seconds remaining to improve the Cougars record to 7-20-1-3.

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The loss drops the Royals to 16-10-2-0, which is 3rd place in the BC Division.

Prince George also snapped a 10-game losing streak against Victoria and defeated its division rivals for the first time in six attempts after dropping the opening five contests this season, with each loss decided by one-goal, three of those coming via the shootout.

Hayden spoke with MyPGNow.com after the game who tipped his cap to the Cougars on another hard game.

“You gotta give Prince George credit they came out ready to go and we didn’t have the start we wanted and they got that goal to give them lots of early momentum but give them credit, they played us hard tonight.”

“Honestly, I think we played very well in the third period. That’s hockey, Gauthier makes a great save on Oliver (Kade) and then they throw a 200-foot prayer that goes into an empty net. If we would have a better first ten minutes to begin the game, the outcome may have been different.”

The Cougars, nine points behind Tri-City for the last Western Conference playoff spot, play one more game before the Christmas break.

It will be on Tuesday when PG battles the Vancouver Giants (14-14-1-1).

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm from the Langley Events Centre.

 

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