Despite being nice and comfy in the provincial capital for three days, the Prince George Cougars couldn’t come through in a high-stakes game.
The Victoria Royals (33-15-3-6) exploded for five unanswered goals from as many players setting up a 5-3 win over the Cougars in front of 3,696 fans at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena.
Washington Capitals prospect Terik Parascak finished off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Riley Heidt beating an outstretched Johnny Hicks for a 1-0 lead.
Caleb Matthews evened the score for Victoria nine minutes later as a quick pass from defence Cosmo Wilson found Hayden Moore on the far side.
Moore spotted Matthews streaking down the middle of the ice past Cats defender Leith Hunter, shooting under the bar past netminder Josh Ravensbergen.
Ravensbergen did his best to keep the Cougars in it during the second period, making several point-blank stops following an ill-advised defensive zone turnover from Arseni Anisimov.
Victoria would benefit from some puck luck as towering blueliner Justin Kipke’s point shot went off a maze of bodies, changing direction on Ravensbergen for a 2-1 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Moore’s tenacity on the puck paid off in spades as he was stopped initially by Ravensbergen and then followed that chance up with a wrap-around that found daylight and into the back of the Cougars net.
Brandon Lisowsky provided the kill shot for the Royals 1:08 into the third period as Hunter’s pocket was picked exiting the zone by Finish import Markus Loponen.
Seven minutes later, Wilson made it 5-1 from Nate Misskey and Wyatt Danyleyko.
Aiden Foster and Viliam Kmec added singles late for Prince George, who now fall seven points back of the Royals for first place in the BC Division with two games in hand.
The Cougars (31-18-4-2) were without star rookie blueliner Carson Carels, but did benefit from the return of veteran defender Bauer Dumanski.
Dumanski finished the game with a +1 rating and one shot on goal. Ravensbergen made 31 saves in defeat.
His counterpart, Johnny Hicks stopped 24 Cougars pucks to improve to 6-2-0-0 since departing the BCHL’s Brooks Bandits.
Victoria went 0-for-3 on the power-play while the Cougars weren’t awarded an man-advantage.
PG sits fourth in the Western Conference five points up on the Portland Winterhawks.
Both teams finish off the weekend double-header tonight (Saturday) at 6pm.
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