Royals 5 - Cougars 3

Saturday night in Prince George the Prince George Cougars dropped a 5-3 score to the Victoria Royals. Robin Soudek scored twice for Victoria in the victory while Cody Carlson and Daulton Siwak each recorded two-point games for the Cougars.

It was a 1-1 game after one period. The Royals opened the scoring when Zane Jones banged home a Dakota Conroy rebound for his 12th of the season. It wouldn’t last long.

23 seconds later the Cougars evened the score when Troy Bourke raced across the blueline and wired a shot past Jared Rathjen for his 13th goal of the year. Bourke’s goal gives him 43 points on the season which is a new season-high for the 17-year-old.

Early in the second, Victoria went up 2-1 when Robin Soudek converted off a two-on-one pass from Logan Nelson. The Royals would add to their lead late in the second when Brandon Magee netted his 21st of the season, and the Royals took a 3-1 lead into the third period for a second game in a row.

Robin Soudek scored early in the third to push Victoria’s lead to 4-1 and that’s when the Cougars turned things around.

Jarrett Fontaine made a nice move while short-handed to set up Daulton Siwak in close. Siwak made no mistake for his 14th goal of the season, which happens to be a new season high for him. Siwak assisted on Bourke’s goal to give him a multi-point game. The assist for Fontaine helps him extend his point streak to three games.

Just under three minutes later, Chase Witala continued his recent hot stretch with his sixth of the season. It was 4-3 Victoria with about half a period to go.

Unfortunately for the Cougars their comeback bid ended there. The Cougars were given a late power play but could not convert with the extra attacker. Steven Hodges sealed the game for Victoria with an empty-netter with 67 seconds remaining in the game.

Victoria outshot Prince George 42-33. Cougars netminder Drew Owsley made 37 saves on 41 shots faced while Jared Rathjen turned aside 30 of the 33 shots he faced. Both teams finished zero-for-six on the power play, but the Cougars did have the short-handed goal from Daulton Siwak.

The loss moves the Cougars record to 19-40-0-2 and the Cougars will now head into this week four points back of the Seattle Thunderbirds for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Cougars return to action on Tuesday night at home against the Medicine Hat Tigers.