Giants claw win away from Cougars
Simply unbearable. For the Prince George Cougars, there’s no other way to look at how their hardfought battle with the Vancouver Giants ended so miserably on the ice Sunday at Langley Events Centre.
It was the Giants’ Teddy Bear Toss game and Bowen Byram finally got the Giants into a groove. The 16-year-old defenceman gave the gathering of 4,088 a chance to throw their collection of furry animals of various species onto the ice, 11:31 into the third period.
It was the only goal the Giants would need to hand the Cougars their thirdstraight loss in a 2-0 decision.
Byram’s power-play shot from the point hit something in front of Cougars goalie Tavin Grant and deflected in. Grant was solid from start to finish, making 31 saves as the game’s second star. He was on the bench when Ty Ronning accepted a breakaway pass from former Cougar Brad Morrison and shot the puck into the empty net to cinch it.
David Tendeck made 40 saves to earn his second shutout of the season.
The Cougars left Prince George last Thursday thinking they had a shot at picking up six points but were instead left with nothing.
They lost 5-3 Friday to the Seattle Thunderbirds and were blanked 4-0 Saturday by the white-hot Everett Silvertips. The Cougars’ power failure started in Kent, Wash., where the T-birds outscored them 4-1 in the third period.
Cougars assistant coach Shawn Chambers said he could not fault his team’s effort Sunday, it was their lack of finish that did them in against the Giants. Bad blood has been surfacing between the teams ever since they last met in Prince George Dec. 2 and Chambers said his players drew inspiration from a mini-brawl that erupted 16:18 in the first period Sunday after Cats defenceman Josh Anderson roughed up Tyler Benson in the corner.
“I thought that (series of scraps) was great for our hockey team after the last game in Everett, our compete-level wasn’t very good in that game and I thought that kind of brought our team together and we played hard today,” said Chambers.
“It was actually a really good game. We were getting a lot of chances, a lot of good looks and one of these times we’ll get a bunch. It’s a divisional game, these are huge points for us and if we’re to compete like this every night, us three coaches would not be upset at any time. It was a 1-0 game – 40 shots we had and we couldn’t bury one. It’s going to come.”
The Cats did generate some A-1 opportunities.
Jared Bethune, Josh Curtis and Josh Maser all had point-blank shots turned aside by Tendeck and Nic Holowko was a constant threat around the net but couldn’t cash in. It marked the third time in 34 games this season the Cougars put up a goose egg on the scoresheet.
“It stinks to go 0-3 on this roadtrip but to come out and play this hard at least there’s something to build on in the Christmas break,” said Chambers.
“Hockey is a game you have to play with a bit of an edge because if you don’t you’re not going to succeed. You have to play with a bit of a burr and today we saw that and it wasn’t just one guy, it was everyone.”
The loss dropped the Cougars’ record to 12-17-3-2. They remain fifth in the B.C. Division, 11 points behind the Giants (18-132-2), who are third in the B.C. standings.
The Cougars will get the week off and return to the ice Dec. 27 in Victoria in the first of a two-game set with the Royals on back to back nights. They have a return engagement with the Giants in Langley on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1 before they play again at CN Centre Jan. 5-6 against the Tri-City Americans.