No Griffen Outhouse, no problem for the Victoria Royals.
With the Royals workhouse 20-year-old goalie and former Cariboo Cougar sidelined with an injury, the team played very well in front of Brock Gould.
The 17-year-old Gould from Colorado Springs, Colorado, in just his 4th WHL game, made 18 saves on 19 shots as Victoria whipped the Prince George Cougars 5-1.
At the other end, the Cougars 17-year-old #1 goalie Taylor Gauthier allowed five goals on 26 shots before 3,658 fans at CN Centre.
The Royals scored more goals in the opening period (4) than they did in their previous three games combined (3).
Victoria enjoyed comfortable period leads of 4-0 and 5-1.
It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Cougars to match their season-high.
Prince George is also 1-4 in its last five home games (outscored 24-11 over that stretch).
Dante Hannoun opened and closed the scoring on the power-play.
The 20-year-old Hannoun has 11 points in the last eight games against P.G. dating back to last season.
Igor Martynov tallied twice, both on breakaways, just over seven minutes apart.
The only Prince George goal came from Ilijah Colina, his fourth of the season and first in six weeks.
The same teams meet again this afternoon at 2:00 in a game that features the Un-Teddy Bear Toss.
It will be the Cougars final appearance at CN Centre in 2018.
They don’t play at home again until January 11th (one day after the January 10th trade deadline) against Kelowna.
The 10-14-1-2 Cougars are last in the B.C. Division, a point behind the (11-11-1-1) Kamloops Blazers.
Prince George is also three points back of the (13-9) Royals and the (12-15-2) Kelowna Rockets.
Kamloops doubled Seattle and Kelowna lost 5-4 in overtime to Saskatoon in other WHL action on Saturday.
GAME SUMMARY
Boxscore- http://whl.ca/gamecentre/1015883/boxscore
SCORING
Cougars– Ilijah Colina (1 G), Ryan Schoettler (1 A).
Royals- Dante Hannoun (2 G), Igor Martynov (2 G), Phillip Schultz (2 A), Scott Walford (2 A), Tanner Sidaway (1 G), Dino Kambeitz (1 A), Sean Gulka (1 A).
GOALTENDING
Cougars- Taylor Gauthier (Loss) 21/26 60:00
Royals- Brock Gould (Win) 18/19 58:50, Keegan Maddocks 0/0 1:10
POWER-PLAY
Cougars- 0/3
Royals- 2/4
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