Cougars outshot opponents, but Chiefs march to victory

After 20 hours on a bus from Northern BC to Eastern Washington, the Prince George Cougars arrived in Spokane and went firing on all cylinders.

Only problem was, despite sending 38 pucks to the cage compared to the home team’s 28, the Cats couldn’t find the back of the net all but twice.

The Chiefs took advantage, ultimately winning 6-2 at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Friday night.

FINAL:@Liam_Ryann gets his first @TheWHL goal. Strong effort, despite the result. @TCAmericans on deck tomorrow.#WHL #PGvsSPK pic.twitter.com/8ooDRiT7DC

— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) January 13, 2018

“We needed to play against these guys the way we did back at home earlier this week. We need to get better puck-moving especially if we want to have a chance at winning our next game,” said Cougars Assistant Head Coach Steve O’Rourke on 94.3 the GOAT’s post-game show.

Spokane, who sits 4th in the competitive US Division, scored three unanswered goals within the first 10 minutes of the opening period.

Five minutes later, PG rookie forward Liam Ryan would get the monkey off his back by potting his first career WHL goal and kickstarting a comeback by the Cats.

The 18-year-old however took a late penalty, forcing Prince George to start the second frame one man short, but he would be avenged by Aaron Boyd 26 seconds in, scoring short-handed to get to within one goal, 3-2.

The Chiefs would roll away, netting three straight goals including one power-play and one short-handed; two in the second and one in the third, handing the Cougars their 20th loss of the 2017-18 season.

O’Rourke believes the scoresheet doesn’t fully reflect the bench’s performance.

“The difference is when you have that level of skill, you don’t need multiple chances to score. So this was a disappointing result; at the end of the day, we could’ve won this game tonight if we had some finish. I thought we outplayed them in their zone, we shut them down in our zone, but they obviously thrive beating teams on the rush and on the power-plays too.”

Prince George’s record drops to 16-20-4-3 and seven points back of a wild-card playoff spot; Kamloops lost 6-5 to Victoria Friday, while Seattle fell 6-2 in Kelowna.

The Cougars conclude their brief US stint today, 7:05PM in Tri-City against the Americans.

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