The Prince George Cougars had their three-game win streak come to an end on Saturday, after they fell 5-1 to the Victoria Royals at Save on Foods Memorial Centre.
Kaid Oliver scored twice for Victoria and Gary Haden chipped in with three assists, as the Royals erased a 1-0 first period deficit for their sixth win against Prince George this season. Sean Gulka, Logan Doust, and Keanu Derungs also scored for the Royals, who snapped a two-game losing streak with the victory. Brock Gould picked up his second win against the Cougars this season, turning aside 24 of 25 shots.
Nikita Krivokrasov scored the Cougars’ only goal, four-minutes into the first period, but it was the Royals scoring five unanswered goals to dash Prince George’s hopes of extending their win streak. Taylor Gauthier was tagged with the loss, stopping 25 of 30 shots.
Prince George led 1-0 into the second period before Victoria turned the game around and quickly. Gulka and Doust scored 29-seconds apart to give the Royals a 2-1 lead, then Keanu Derungs scored a power-play goal with a minute and a half left in the middle frame, to put the home team up 3-1 after 40-minutes. Oliver scored his two goals in the third, one a power-player marker, that came 79-seconds apart to put the game out of reach.
It was an emotionally charged game, that was highlighted by plenty of physicality and jarring after the whistle. There was four fighting majors handed out, two to the Cougars’ Josh Maser and Reid Perepeluk.
Game Notes: Saturday’s loss extended the Cougars winless streak in Victoria to 10 games (0-7-1-2). Prince George last won in Victoria on December 27th, 2017 (5-3). The Cougars record is now 1-3-0-3 in seven games against the Royals. With his goal Saturday, Krivokrasov has two goals and three points in the past four games.
Next Up: The Cougars (9-21-1-3) are off Sunday before traveling to the Okanagan to face the Kelowna Rockets on Monday night. The Cougars last met the Rockets on November 30th, a 3-2 setback at Prospera Place. Monday is the sixth of nine meetings in the season series. Kelowna lost 6-2 to the Vancouver Giants Saturday night.
Power-Play
Cougars- 0/6
Royals – 2/5
Shots
Cougars- 25
Royals- 30
Three Stars: 1) Kaid Oliver 2) Gary Haden 3) Brandon Cutler