Giants crush Cougars
The power play finally connected, but it was too little too late for the Prince George Cougars.
They had all the momentum working for them in the late stages and forced the Vancouver Giants to bend, but they did not break, hanging on to beat the Cougars 5-3 Friday night at CN Centre.
But for awhile there, the Cougars gave a small gathering of 2,774 faithful supporters hopes of a late-game comeback. Down by two with only two minutes left, the Cougars made a game when their beleaguered power play finally came to life.
The Cats had goalie Tavin Grant on the bench to create a 6-on-4 advantage when Brogan O’Brien spied Josh Maser standing in front and laid a shot–pass on his stick for perfect deflection, bringing the Cougars to within a goal with 2:03 still left on the clock.
They had the Giants reeling, coming close to getting the equalizer a couple times, until Tyler Benson picked off a cross-ice pass from Cougar winger Kody McDonald to end the suspense, firing from centre ice into an empty net with 24 seconds left.
The win ended a three-game road losing streak for the Giants (12-12-2-2), who moved six points ahead of the Cougars (9-14-2-2), who remained last overall in the WHL Western Conference. They’ve lost five straight.
The Cougars got off to a rough start and quickly found themselves trailing in the shot department 8-1. Tavin Grant did his job holding the fort but was at the mercy of the Giants in a frantic flurry deep in the Cougars’ end that ended when Milos Roman jumped on a fat rebound to open the scoring 13:49 into the game – the only goal of the first period.
The Giants scored three goals on nine shots to tale a 4-1 lead in the second period. Ty Ronning took a pass off the end board from linemate Roman and cut across the crease with a backhander for his 26th goal in 28 games, second in the WHL.
That came just 37 seconds into the second period. Brad Morrison got the puck ahead to Roman on the play, the team-leading 21st assist of the season for Morrison, a native of Prince George playing his first game on the visitors’ side of the ice after four seasons with the Cougars.
Benson got into the act 5:39 into the second with a tip-in for his 10th of the season in only his 15th game since returning from a lengthy injury dating back to last season. He ended up with two goals and an assist.
The Cougars answered Benson’s first goal just 17 seconds later. Aaron Boyd got to a dump-in behind the Vancouver net and dug the puck out for Jared Bethune, who was all alone in front of goalie David Tendeck and had time to tuck in a low shot.
The Giants converted on their first power-play chance of the game at 13:46, killing the momentum the Cougars were starting to build.
The rematch will be played tonight at CN Centre, starting at 7 p.m.