Lousy starts are nothing new in junior hockey, however, they shouldn’t always dictate the result of a game.
Apparently, the Prince George Cougars didn’t get the message. A critical game that began poorly ended in the exact same fashion on Family Day Monday as the Cats dropped a 7-2 road decision to the Vancouver Giants in front of 4,405 fans at the Langley Events Centre.
Tyus Sparks, Connor Levis and Adam Titlbach all lit the lamp twice for the Giants. Titlbach finished the contest with four points and a plus four rating.
Sparks opened the scoring at 14:50 of the first period as the rookie burst into the Cougars zone following an errant pass by overage blueliner Viliam Kmec. Sparks gained entry and fired a shot past netminder Cooper Michaluk.
A failed cross-ice pass from inside the PG zone by Borya Valis was telegraphed perfectly by Giants defender Ryan Lin who let a quick shot go that was stopped by Michaluk but the rebound was put back in play and was finished off by Titlbach who made it 2-0 Vancouver at the eight-minute mark of the second period.
Levis made it 3-0 Giants four minutes later accepting a chip pass by Titlbach setting up the Winnipeg Jets prospect who went glove side on Michaluk.
Ben Riche put PG on the board prior to the intermission deflecting a saucer pass from Valis who outskated a Giants defenseman for a loose puck.
A tripping penalty by Kmec just two minutes into the third period would prove costly as Mazden Leslie wired a rebound over the shoulder of Michaluk to restore the Giants three-goal edge.
Terik Parascak trimmed the deficit to 4-2, connecting on a Cougars man-advantage set up by Riley Heidt.
The backbreaker for the Cougars came at the 12:19 mark when Schmidt picked the pocket of Heidt inside the Vancouver zone, led an offensive zone rush before letting a quick shot go that was cleaned up by Sparks.
Levis and Titlbach capped off the scoring to improve Vancouver’s record to 27-21-6-0.
The Giants outshot the Cougars 39-34 while both teams went 1-for-5 on the power-play.
Michaluk stopped 32 shots in defeat while Vancouver rookie Burke Hood also made 32 saves in the victory.
The pairing of Viliam Kmec and Carson Carels had an off night ending the game with identical minus four ratings.
Despite laying an egg on the road, PG (31-17-4-2) remains five points back of the Victoria Royals (32-15-3-6) for top spot in the BC Division. Victoria fell 3-2 to the Everett Silvertips on Monday.
PG veteran blueliner Bauer Dumanski missed his fourth game out of the last five. Fellow defender Corbin Vaughan has two games left to serve in his ten-game suspension.
The Cougars take on Victoria in a pair of crucial road tilts Friday and Saturday from the Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena.
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