Quick strike offense.
You could say it was the calling card of the Prince George Cougars on Friday night, lighting the lamp four times in the first 4:27 seconds pacing their way to a 6-2 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes in front of 3,337 fans at CN Centre.
Before fans could get settled into their seats, Dmitry Yakutsenak opened the scoring 42-seconds in capping off a Brock Souch pass, finding its way past Hurricanes goaltender Koen Cleaver.
The relentless wave of puck mastery continued over two minutes later as a hard point blast by Carson Carels rippled the back of the mesh, giving the hosts an early 2-0 stranglehold.
When it rains, it often pours, and in the case of the visiting Hurricanes, they remained caught in a monsoon.
Yakutsenak found a crease in the Lethbridge zone blasting a one-timer over the glove of Cleaver.
Lethbridge native Terik Parascak notched his 17th of the season driving hard to the net, tipping home a Kooper Gizowski pass, giving PG a commanding 4-0 edge.
This spelled the end of the road for Cleaver who allowed four goals on five shots and was replaced by Leif Oaten.
After a timeout by Hurricanes bench boss Matt Anholt, the game finally started to slow down and even gave the visitors a glimmer of hope.
That glimmer shined a little brighter as former Kelowna Rocket Kayden Longley pounced on a loose puck off a misplay by Cougars goaltender Alex Levshyn trimming the deficit to three goals.
In the second, it looked as if PG hit cruise control and slept walked their way through the middle period.
Owen Berge made it a 4-2 game. His power move out of the Cougars corner led to a hard blast over the glove of Levshyn making the home crowd a little nervous.
However, a Thomas Malinek interference minor with less than minute remaining awoke the Cougars from their cat nap.
Yakutsenak completed his hat-trick following a slick cross-ice pass from Carels beating the buzzer.
The third period provided little in terms of adversity or gut-busting plays with the exception of late-period fight involving Jack Finnegan (Cougars) and Gavin Lesiuk (Hurricanes).
Lee Shurgot capped off the victory with a short-handed empty-net goal.
When the final buzzer sounded Lethbridge outshot PG 26-20. The Hurricanes went 2-for-6 on the power-play while the Cougars were 1-for 3.
Levshyn made 24 saves in his first game back since October 25th against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
The 19-year-old from Ukraine improves to 4-1-0-0 on the season.
Gizowski, who spent the last two seasons in Lethbridge prior to being claimed off waivers by the Cougars in the summer, chipped in with a three-assist effort against his former team.
In addition, to the Yakutsenak hat-trick, Souch (two assists), Arsenii Anisimov (two assists), Parascak (one goal, one assist), Carels (one goal and one assist) and Shurgot (one goal, one assist) all had multi-point games.
Prince George improves to 15-7-0-0 on the season, which keeps them first in the B.C. Division over the Penticton Vees.
The Cougars now get ready for a star-studded matchup against the Eastern Conference leading Edmonton Oil Kings (18-5-1-1).
Lethbridge drops to 8-16-0-1, last in the Eastern Conference.
Puck drop is at 6pm from CN Centre.
It also marks Cougars Fight Cancer Night where the WHL club will wear specialty pink and black jerseys to mark the occasion.
A mega 50-50 jackpot will also be up for grabs with a guaranteed pot of $50,000.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
