500 Wins for the Prince George Cougars.

Tuesday night in Victoria the Prince George Cougars earned their 500th career victory in the city where their franchise originated. Troy Bourke had three assists, and four different goal scorers helped pace the Prince George Cougars to a 4-2 victory over the Victoria Royals.

The Cougars opened the scoring at 14:36 of the first period when defenceman Reid Jackson scored his second of the season on a point shot from the right side. Royal’s goaltender Keith Hamilton appeared to be screened on the play.

Three minutes later the Royals countered with the equalizer. Jamie Crooks’ initial shot was stopped by Drew Owsley, but Crooks followed up on his shot and batted his own rebound out of the air and into the net to make it 1-1.

The Cougars and Royals were tied at one after one with the Cougars outshooting Victoria 12-11.

Victoria quickly took a 2-1 lead early in the second period when Brandon Magee finished off a give-and-go with Mike Forsyth for his 16th goal of the season.

Greg Fraser evened the score at two at 7:24 of the period when he finished off a nice pass from Chase Witala. Witala did a lot of the dirty work behind the Victoria goal to free the puck, and Fraser made no mistake with the pass for his 13th of the season. Fraser has now scored in back-to-back games.

Daulton Siwak gave the visitors the lead at 15:16 when he beat Keith Hamilton from inside the left circle for his ninth of the season. Siwak has also now scored in back-to-back games. Troy Bourke was credited with his second assist of the game on this goal.

Mid-way through the third period the Prince George Cougars increased their lead when Ricard Blidstrand knocked in his own rebound after receiving the initial pass from Troy Bourke behind the goal. Blidstrand’s first as a Cougar provided more than enough insurance for the Cougars who outshot the Royals 12-10 in the third, and 34-32 overall.

Both teams were only given one power play and both of them were abbreviated.

The Cougars improved their record to 16-31-0-2 on the year, and have now inched within three points of Victoria for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Cougars are now 1-1-0-1 through three meetings this season with Victoria.

The Cougars will look to inch a little closer to the Royals tomorrow night when these teams meet again in Victoria.