Royals 5 - Cougars 1

Wednesday night in Victoria, the Prince George Cougars dropped a 5-1 score to the Victoria Royals. Victoria scored five unanswered goals and went two-for-five on the power play to earn their 17th win of the season and third against the Cougars in four games.

Prince George got off to a great start when Chase Witala raced down the left-wing and fired a shot past Keith Hamilton for his third of the season. It was the first shot of the game for Prince George who continued to mount pressure afterwards. Daulton Siwak had a glorious chance off a giveaway, but he fired wide on the backhand and the lead was still only one goal.

Victoria tied the score at 11:16 of the first when Jordan Fransoo put a shot towards the goal from the right point. His shot was blocked in front by his own teammate Ben Walker, who then tucked a backhander through Drew Owsley for his fifth of the season.

Early in the second the Royals took the lead when Ben Walker converted a Robin Soudek pass for his sixth of the season and second of the night. The Cougars had a great chance a few moments later, but Chase Witala was denied on a two-on-one opportunity with Greg Fraser.

Late in the second the Royals were given a lengthy five-on-three power play and made the Cougars pay. Jamie Crooks was the recipient of some fortunate puck-luck when Hayden Rintoul’s point shot took an awkward bounce off of the back of the net net, and right to Crooks who tapped in his 27th of the season.

52 seconds later Dakota Conroy scored another power play marker from beside the goal on the left-wing to make it 4-1 for the Royals.

The Royals capped off the scoring early in the third when Steven Hodges tipped home a Zach Habscheid point-shot for his 15th of the season.

The Cougars were given two more power plays in the third but were unable to take advantage.

Victoria outshot Prince George 32-21 and went two-for-five on the power play. The Cougars were zero-for-four on their power play opportunities.

The Cougars record now sits at 16-32-0-2 and fall five points back of Victoria in the Western Conference standings. The Cougars still hold two games in hand on the Royals and will face them four more times before the season wraps up.

The Cougars return home to face the Kelowna Rockets twice this weekend with the first game going Friday night at CN Centre.