Phillips powers Royals past Cougars

The Prince George Cougars beat the Victoria Royals in just about every department, except on the scoreboard.

Matthew Phillips took care of that most important factor, coming through with two goals to lead the Royals to a 4-3 win Sunday afternoon in Victoria.

The Royals (39-25-4-2) handed the Cougars (23-27-5-4) their fifth-straight loss, but the Cats probably deserved better. They outshot, outplayed and outhit the Royals in this one. But Phillips and his two power-play goals and a franchise record-setting performance from goalie Griffen Outhouse made all the difference.

Phillips, the Calgary Flames’ sixth-round draft pick in 2016, increased his season totals to 47 goals and 111 points at the Cougars’ expense, while Outhouse, a former Cariboo Cougar midget, made 33 saves to preserve his 35th regular-season win, establishing a Royals record for most wins in a season.

“For Victoria it’s always going to be that factor, that power play, they’ve got the skill and they throw out five high-end (NHL-) drafted players that are highly skilled and it’s hard to keep 50goal scorer, 100-point guys off the scoresheet,” said Cougars associate coach Steve O’Rourke. “That’s what we’re going to build towards in the future here is having players like that in our lineup in the next few years, taking the draft picks that we have and translating those into the (Matthew) Phillips, the (Cody) Glasses and the (Tyler) Soys throughout the league.”

The Cougars, in their fourth meeting with the Royals in eight days, wasted no time making their mark. A point shot from Cameron MacPhee deflected high and caught a piece of Outhouse and as it slid through the blue paint Aaron Boyd whacked it in the net just 15 seconds into the game.

The Royals got that one back two minutes later, a turnaround wrist shot in the slot from Tarun Fizer that fooled Tavin Grant, and took the lead on their first power play of the game. Tanner Kaspick’s shot-pass hit the blade of Phillips and he deflected the puck in while standing just off the post.

The Cougars scored two goals late in the second period to grab the lead. Joel Lakusta joined the rush after Brogan O’Brien forced a turnover in the neutral zone while the Royals were making a line change and Lakusta got to the rebound after O’Brien’s initial shot was stopped. The Cougars needed just nine seconds of power-play time in the final minute of the period to go up 3-2. Jared Bethune won the offensive-zone face-off and Jackson Leppard buried the rebound after O’Brien took the shot. O’Brien finished with two assists and was picked as the game’s second star.

The Royals scored two goals five minutes apart in the third period to retake the lead. Igor Martynov stole the puck from Lakusta behind the Cougars’ net and scored on a far-side wraparound. The Royals were on a 4-on-3 advantage when Phillips scored the game-winner. Grant came up with a marvellous diving save with his stick to rob Soy after a goalmouth setup from Noah Gregor, but the puck was left in front for Phillips, who tucked it in with 6:52 left.

The Cougars had chances with their goalie on the bench. They had the puck in the Victoria end most of that time in the final minute and the best chance came when Josh Maser grazed the post.

The Cougars outshot the Royals 36-34.

“Ultimately, we outplayed this team for six periods in Victoria and we came up short, but we’re setting a tone and culture here and if you want to compete like that you’re going to get a chance to play in our lineup and have a chance to be successful,” said O’Rourke.

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“I know we didn’t get the points but we were successful this weekend from a manto-man standpoint. We just didn’t capitalize and that’s ultimately the difference in the game is having guys who can capitalize.

“Your real goal with a hockey team is to be real skilful and hard to play against. Right now we still have to build on the skill side but we were hard to play against tonight. We were hitting too hard and Vic- toria led the league with their conferences with the referees, so that’s exactly where we want to be. When your top guys play 200 feet and they play hard, teams don’t like it and you become hard to beat. ”

Led by rookie winger Reid Perepeluk and a hardnosed group of defencemen, especially MacPhee, Austin Crossley and Lakusta, the Cougars set the tone with their physical play in what was a feisty game for both sides.

Perepeluk had the Royals looking over their shoulders but stuck to the rules with his bodychecks on the forecheck in his third game back with the Cougars since his season with the junior B Kamloops Storm ended. The 17-year-old from Yorkton, Sask., scored his first WHL career goal in Friday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Royals.

“I don’t think he (would be) this kind of player at this time of year if he didn’t go down and play junior B,” said O’Rourke. “His pace of play is higher, his confidence is higher, and he’s done a good job. Early in the year (when he played for the Cougars) it was a lack of ability to think fast enough with the play and here, in February and March, he’s been able to keep up with the pace.”

The Cougars play Wednesday night in Kelowna and hit Kamloops Friday night for a home-and-home encounter with the Blazers which wraps up the season Saturday night at CN Centre.