Saturday, December 3, 2011

Blazers Squeak By Cougars 5-4.

Friday in Kamloops the Prince George Cougars fell 5-4 to the Kamloops Blazers. Brendan Ranford’s power play marker at 13:11 of the third proved to be the difference as the Cougars fell a single goal short.

Kamloops opened the scoring at 12:54 of the opening period when Tim Bozon threw a long wrist-shot on goal that beat Drew Owsley.

Once the teddy bears were cleaned off the ice, the Prince George Cougars took momentum and quickly tied the score. Alex Forsberg knocked home his fifth of the season off a Troy Bourke rebound, which tied the score at one.

Kamloops quickly countered with a goal from Chase Souto. Souto walked in from the left wing and slid a low shot into the net to give the Blazers a 2-1 through 20 minutes.

Early in the second the Cougars tied it up. Jake Mykitiuk went hard to the net and re-directed a Cody Carlson point-shot past Cam Lanigan to even the score at two.

The Cougars were then given two straight power plays but were unable to get the puck past Cam Lanigan. Spencer Asuchak had the best chance of the period, but Lanigan turned him aside.

At the other end Drew Owsley made a terrific save off of Matthew Needham to keep the game locked at two.

Late in the second period the Cougars were short-handed for nearly four full minutes when Linden Springer was penalized twice for slashing. Kamloops struck late in the second penalty when Matthew Needham tipped home a Bronson Maschmeyer shot to make it 3-2.

The Cougars wasted no time tying the game up in the third. Spencer Asuchak received a Troy Bourke pass off a two-on-one and out-waited Cam Lanigan for his eighth goal of the season.

But again the Kamloops Blazers had an answer. Less than two minutes later Tyler Bell scored his first of the season from the left-point and for a fourth time in the game, Kamloops had the lead.

Brendan Ranford padded the lead to 5-3 when he re-directed a Matthew Needham pass by Drew Owsley. Ranford’s goal came on the power play.

The Cougars drew within one on a power play tally of their own. Troy Bourke and Alex Forsberg connected again, this time with Troy Bourke pulling the trigger for his eighth goal of the season.

Campbell Elynuik nearly tied it on the very next shift, but Cam Lanigan made a sprawling pad-save.

The Cougars continued to press, but were unable to beat Lanigan one last time, and the Blazers skated to victory.

The Cougars were outshot 32-29 and finished one-for-three on the power play.

Afterwards, Cougars head-coach Dean Clark had many complimentary things to say about his team’s effort, but he brought up a lack of discipline as the main downfall of his team.

Cody Carlson kept his point-streak going and has now registered a point in seven straight games.

The Cougars are back at it tomorrow (Saturday) night in Kelowna. It’ll be the fifth meeting of the season between the Cougars and the Rockets.

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