Lacking focus off the hop has proven to be a dangerous game as of late for the Prince George Cougars.
Luckily, they have the firepower to come back most nights.
Five unanswered goals in the final 40 minutes, including a three-spot in the second period catapulted the Cougars to a 6-3 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds Friday night at CN Centre in front of 3,484 fans.
The start, which left little to be desired, was something out of an old Halloween horror film.
A misplay of a loose puck by rookie defenseman Phoenix Cahill allowed Thunderbirds super-rookie Brock England to speed-demon his way in and tuck the puck past Josh Ravensbergen who failed to swipe away the frozen black disc on an ill-advised poke check.
The horrendous start continued a mere 27 seconds later as a point blast by Vanek Popil found its way through a screened Ravensbergen who was blocked out by the big frame of Cameron Kuzma who drew an assist on the play.
Arsenii Anisimov picked the Cougars off the mat with a bullet of his own pouncing on a cross-ice feed from the half-wall by Kooper Gizowski to trim the deficit to 2-1.
Seattle’s puck luck continued to come up aces.
Sixteen seconds later a hard blast by England went off the pants of Simon Lovsin, re-directing the puck into the PG goal converting three times on their first nine shots.
When the complexion of the game looked bleak, Cougars captain Bauer Dumanski took the game by the throat and led by example as he often does.
On a power-play, the second unit whipped the puck around like their was no tomorrow, ultimatley finding the blade of Dumsnski who’s blast rippled the mesh behind Seattle import goalie Marek Sklenicka ending the first period at 3-2.
In the second, the trio of Brock Souch, Terik Parascak and Dimitry Yakutsenak said enough is enough and owned the ice against the Thunderbirds.
Once again, the Cougars made mince meat out of Seattle’s 17th rated penalty kill as Parascak, a first-round pick of the Washington Capitals finished off the passing sequence, jamming home a loose puck at the side of the goal to tie the game at 3-3.
The marker ended up being Parascak’s 200th regular season point in the WHL.
Less than three minutes later, the red-hot trio made Seattle pay again as a good hustle play by Parascak allowed Souch to scoop a loose puck behind the goal, passing it to Yakustenak who made no mistake from the slot.
The puck mastery continued prior to the intermission where another loose puck battle won by Parascak turned into a 2-on-1 rush. The 19-year-old found the Russian import who tallied his second of the period to go along with a 5-3 Cougars lead.
Souch capped off what would be a 10-point night for the line as he buried a back hand shot past Sklenicka following yet another precision pass by Parascak to ice the first half of the weekend double-header.
The Cougars outshot Seattle 41-36 and went 2-for-4 on the power-play while the Thunderbirds failed to convert on three opportunities.
Braeden Cootes, who began the year with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks came within an eyelash of making it a 5-4 game on the man-advantage but rung a pair of shots off the iron.
After allowing three first period markers, Ravensbergen calmed the team down the rest of the way stopping all 27 Seattle shots in the final two periods.
PG improves to 8-3-0-0 on the season while Seattle drops to 4-7-0-0.
Souch and Gizowski extended their league-best point streaks to 11 games.
Williams Lake product and sophomore forward Colton Gerrior won four out of seven face-offs in defeat for the Thunderbirds.
Gerrior has three points in 11 games so far this season – he tallied 11 points as a rookie in 51 appearances.
Both teams play again tonight (Saturday) at 6:00 from CN Centre.
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