Cougars fall to Hawks

Play with fire and you’re liable to get burned.

The Prince George Cougars learned that the hard way Friday night in Portland.

They knew the Portland Winterhawks came in armed with the second-best power play in the Western Hockey League and didn’t get caught taking penalties, with one exception. All it took was one infraction – the only power play the Cougars gave up all game – for the Hawks to demonstrate their offensive might with the extra skater.

They scored two goals with Cougars defenceman Ryan Schoettler serving a four-minute sentence for slewfooting Portland blueliner Brendan De Jong, then added three more at even strength in the second period to cruise to a 5-2 victory with a crowd of 5,183 watching at the Moda Center.

Joachim Blichfeld, the Hawks big gun, scored his team-leading 26th of the season on a one-timer just 28 seconds into the penalty with the teams skating 4-on-3. Seth Jarvis added to the count with just one second left in Schoettler’s double-minor, firing in a backhander after Jake Gricius won the face-off in the P.G. end.

Down 3-0, after an early secondperiod goal from Robbie FrommDelorme, the Cougars finally solved goalie Shane Farkus when Josh Maser tipped in Schoettler’s point shot during a Cougar power play.

The Cats then went on a twoman power play for nearly two minutes, but Cody Glass countered with a backbreaking shorthanded goal. Glass stripped the puck at the far blueline and after his initial shot was stopped by goalie Taylor Gauthier, the Portland centre banged in the rebound.

John Ludvig also scored for Portland. Vladislav Mikhalchuk scored a late-game power-play goal for the Cougars. The Cats ended up 2-for-8 on the power play.

The Winterhawks (18-10-0-2) improved their grip on second place in the U.S. Division. The Cougars (11-16-1-2) remained fifth in the B.C. Division. They are just two points behind Victoria and Kamloops but have played four more games than both those two teams.