The Prince George Cougars did not scare anybody on Halloween night as they were handed their first road loss of the season, falling 6-2 to the Portland Winterhawks in front of just 2,288 fans at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The Winterhawks took control early with three unanswered goals in the first period, two of them on the power-play.
“I thought we could’ve applied more pressure up ice.” said Associate Coach Jim Playfair on the post-game show on 94.3 the Goat.
“There was a few times we did that, but unfortunately it took away from some of our intensity and our aggressiveness in our own zone. I thought we stood around a little too much in our own zone, gave them some good looks, and I think there were some times we could’ve pressured better to help ourselves.”
Portland eventually went ahead 4-0 early in the second before the Cougars scored twice, one on the power-play from Arsenii Anisimov (at 5:52) and the other goal from another defenceman, Corbin Vaughan (at 15:03) to cut the deficit to 4-2 after 40.
Cougars sniper Kooper Gizowski extended his point streak to 13 games with an assist on the second goal.
The Winterhawks tallied the only two goals of the third to put the final nails in the coffin.
“When you break it down, we uncharacteristically two penalty kill goals and two goals where the defencemen were sat beside someone in front of the net.” said Playfair.
“We should’ve had a better effort in the sense of we have been really good in those two areas, and we were not very good tonight so, something to rectify, but I thought overall our team played a really aggressive hard road game.”
Cougars goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen stopped 22 of 28 shots before he was hooked midway thru the 3rd period.
Backup Brady Holtvogt made his WHL debut stopping the six shots he faced.
The game’s second star, and Winterhawks goaltender Ondrej Stebetak blocked 33 of 35 shots.
Alex Weiermair, the game’s first star, notched a goal and two assists.
The (8-5) Cougars, riding their first two-game losing streak of the season, continue a 6-game road trip, when they visit the Seattle Thunderbirds tonight (Saturday) at 6:05 and the Vancouver Giants Sunday afternoon at 4:00 in Langley.
The schedule is here.
The WHL standings are here.
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