Special teams play kills Cougars

The special teams of the Victoria Royals had a special night at the expense of the Prince George Cougars.

The Royals beat the Cougars 5-1 on Saturday night at Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena. The first two Victoria goals were shorthanded markers and the last three came on power plays. The result meant the Cougars finished their first weekend of the 201819 Western Hockey League season with one point out of a possible four.

On Friday, the Royals downed the Cats 2-1 in a shootout.

On Saturday, Victoria’s Kaid Oliver opened the scoring at 11:55 of the first period while teammate Brandon Cutler was in the box for interfering with Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier. Ethan Browne of the Cats tied the score a couple minutes later when he redirected a feed from Reid Perepeluk, past goalie Griffen Outhouse. On the play, import forward Matej Toman picked up his first career WHL point.

Before the first period was done, the Royals moved back into the lead on a shorthanded effort by Tyler Lees.

The Royals added two goals in the second period and one in the third, all with the man advantage. Marksmen were D-Jay Jerome, Dino Kambeitz and Ralph Jarratt.

The Royals outshot the Cougars 33-29 and finished the game 3-for-8 on the power play. The Cougars were 0-for-6 and, for the weekend, 0-for-11.

The Cats will be back on the ice Wednesday in Kelowna against the Rockets. The teams will then square off Friday and Saturday in Prince George (7 p.m. both nights at CN Centre).

Kelowna is 0-2 to start the season after a pair of weekend losses to the Kamloops Blazers, 4-1 on Friday in Kamloops and 3-1 on Saturday in Kelowna.