Witala heats up, but Cougars cooled by Winterhawks comeback

Chase Witala is still the hottest scorer in the Western Hockey League.

The 20-year-old Prince George Cougars winger had six goals in his previous two games and collected two more Friday night early against the Portland Winterhawks. But it wasn’t enough. The Winterhawks scored three unanswered goals in the third period in 5-4 home-ice victory which snapped the Cougars’ six-game winning streak.

Rihards Bukarts scored the winner with just 45 seconds left on the clock, the second goal of the game for the 20-year-old from Latvia.

Bukarts triggered the comeback when he potted a rebound to bring the Hawks within a goal 7:49 into the third period, right after Jesse Gabrielle had given the Cougars a 4-2 lead. Then at the 13:49 mark, Domenic Turgeon, in his first game back from injury, tied it on another rebound effort, leading up to Bukarts’s late-game heroics.

The Portland crowd of 4,454 barely had a chance to get settled in the seats when Witala struck for two goals in the first minute and 23 seconds of the game.

He banked the first one in off the skate of Winterhawks goalie Aiden Hill to open the scoring 48 seconds in, then finished off a 2-on-1 break with linemate Gabrielle to make it a 2-0 count.

Keoni Texeira got Portland started 4:55 into the first with a rebound finish after Ty Edmonds had made the first save, and Tanner Nagles tied it 2-2 early in the second period – his first WHL goal.

Kody McDonald had an answer for that when he deflected in a Sam Ruopp point shot 14:21 into the second to restore the Cougars’ lead.

Shots were 42-39 in the Cougars’ favour.

The Cougars went into the game having won 15 of their last 22 games and had gone nine games without a regulation loss.

Portland improved to 15-14-00 while the Cougars dropped to 18-10-1-1.

LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars play the Winterhawks again tonight in Portland and it’s Teddy Bear Toss Night. A capacity crowd of 12,000 is expected at Portland Memorial Coliseum armed with stuffed-toy donations for charities to toss over the glass if and when the Winterhawks score. The Cougars will then head to Seattle to prepare for Tuesday’s game against the Thunderbirds.