BY FRASER RODGERS
Prince George Cougars
The Prince George Cougars’ winless streak has stretched to six games, after their 5-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels at the Red Deer Centrium Saturday. The Cougars have dropped the first two games of their three-game Central Division road trip, which wraps up Sunday afternoon in Edmonton.
Josh Curtis scored the only Cougars’ goal, midway through the first period to tie the game 1-1. However, the Rebels went on to score four unanswered, two in each of the second and third periods, to pull away. Isaiah DiLaura was tagged with the loss in net, yielding five goals on 35 shots. DiLaura did stop Brandon Hagel on a penalty-shot midway through the middle frame.
However, Hagel scored twice for Red Deer and they also got scoring from Arshdeep Bains, Cameron Hausinger and Brett Davis. Ethan Anders stopped 26 of 27 shots in the Rebels’ crease. Two of the Rebels’ goals came a minute apart in the third period during a four-on-four sequence.
The Cougars six-game losing streak is a new season-high and they’ve been held to two or less goals in each of their last six games. The Cougars are now 2-3-0-0 in five games against the Central Division.
SCORING SUMMARY
First Period
Rebels [1-0] Arshdeep Bains (5) from Alex Morozoff 4:23
Cougars [1-1] Josh Curtis (8) 11:14
Second Period
Rebels [2-1] Brandon Hagel (29) from Cameron Hausinger 13:12GWG
Rebels [3-1] Cameron Hausinger (16) from Chris Douglas 18:35
Third Period
Rebels [4-1] Brandon Hagel (30) from Reese Johnson and Dawson Barteaux 5:21
Rebels [5-1] Brett Davis (15) from Cameron Hausinger 6:21
*GWG= game-winning goal
GOALTENDING
Cougars-Isaiah DiLaura (loss) 30/35 60:00
Rebels- Ethan Anders (win) 26/2760:00
POWER-PLAY
Cougars- 0/2
Rebels- 0/4
UP NEXT: The Cougars (16-26-3-2) conclude their three-game Central Division road trip, Sunday afternoon against the Edmonton Oil Kings (25-15-4-0); the puck drops at 3 pm PT. Fans can listen to the game on 94.3 The GOAT or watch on WHL Live.