Foster lifts Cougars past Wheat Kings

Aiden Foster scored twice as the Prince George Cougars handed the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings a 3-1 loss in Western Hockey League action at CN Centre on Friday.

Lee Shurgot also scored for Prince George (2-3-0-0) while Brandon (2-2-0-0) received its goal from Chase Surkan in front of a crowd of 3,435.

It’s Prince George’s fourth win in a row over Brandon in the past four seasons, and the second 3-1 loss on the road in a row for the Wheat Kings after they fell to the Moose Jaw Warriors last Saturday.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team is improving but needs to convert on its chances.

“It was the same result as our last game, 3-1, but I thought we played better,” Murray said. “They’re a big, heavy team and it was a tight game. They made some plays when they needed to and we couldn’t execute or get to those dirty areas.

“They did a good job of clogging up net front and blocked a lot of shots. Too many of our shots came from the outside.”

The damage started 10 minutes 49 seconds into the game, and was entirely self-inflicted.

On Brandon’s second power play, the puck was lifted out of the Prince George zone, Foster beat the defending forward Jaxon Jacobson and then lifted the puck into the top corner past Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka.

It was the third shorthanded goal of the season allowed by Brandon, and to make matters worse, the man advantage fell to 0-for-12 by the end of the game. That means the opposing penalty kill is scoring at a rate of 25.0 per cent while the power play was operating at zero per cent.

“We shuffled things up and tried to get some more offence with forwards,” Murray said. “We had some looks on the power play but it’s not a good thing when you come out on the minus side on special teams when you’re giving up short-handed goals.”

Early in the second period, the Wheat Kings rang a shot off the post behind Prince George goalie Peyton Shore and the netminder denied Joby Baumuller on a short breakaway midway through the frame.

The Wheat Kings finally broke through when Brandon skated into the zone off the rush and Surkan sent a shot from the top of the circle that handcuffed the netminder.

The Wheat Kings were fortunate to stay tied late in the period when the Cougars had a two-man breakaway. Brandon defenceman Cruz Jim lifted the stick of Townes Kozicky on a cross-crease pass by Dmitri Yakutsenak and the hosts weren’t able to even get a shot on net.

The Cougars regained the lead 5:34 into the final frame on a two-on-one. Ruzicka made a terrific save on Kayden Lemire but the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Foster shovelled the puck past the lunging goalie for his second goal of the game.

The Cougars put it away with a lucky one with 4:05 remaining when Shurgot’s shot missed the net but ricocheted off the lively end boards and went in off Ruzicka’s back.

Brandon pulled the goalie with 2:49 left but couldn’t equalize, and were fortunate Foster missed the net on a couple of opportunities at the hat trick.

Ruzicka made 26 saves in his season debut for the Wheat Kings, with Shore stopping 21 shots for the Cougars.

Brandon went 0-for-3 on the power play, with Prince George unsuccessful in two chances.

One of the few highlights for the Wheat Kings was the play of newly acquired overage defenceman Cole Slobodian of Brandon in his debut after he was acquired on Thursday from the Portland Winterhawks.

“He was very solid,” Murray said. “I thought he played exactly like we hoped he would,” Murray said. “He ate a lot of minutes and certainly has a veteran presence out there. I thought our D as a whole did a pretty good job.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured players D Ilari Kapanen, F Jimmy Egan and F Cole Hunter …. The healthy scratches were F Ahmad Fayad and D Cameron Allard … All four East Division teams that were in action lost … Baumuller led the Wheat Kings with five shots on net … The game took two hours, 22 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Prince George won 29-28 … Brandon next sees action when it meets the Victoria Royals on Sunday at 6:05 p.m. (CT).

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

 

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Cougars 3, Wheat Kings 1

First Period

1. Prince George, Foster 3 (Kozicky, Vaughan) 10:49 (sh).

Penalties — Funk PG (holding) 2:26, Slobodian Bdn (tripping) 6:42, Johnston PG (tripping) 9:23,

Second Period 

2. Brandon, Surkan 2 (Muissu, McGregor) 15:04

Penalties — Young Bdn (roughing) 2:44, Finnegan PG (roughing) 2:44, Gleasman Bdn (roughing) 10:32, Finnegan PG (roughing) 10:32, Wotherspoon PG (roughing) 10:32,

Third Period

3. Prince George, Foster 4 (Lemire) 5:34.

4. Prince George, Shurgot 2 (Kozicky, Johnston) 15:55.

Penalties — Gleasman Bdn (fighting major) 7:07, Finnegan PG (fighting major) 7:07, Bhathal Bdn (tripping) 9:46.

Shots on goal by 

Brandon 8 7 9 — 24

Prince George 8 9 12 — 29

Goal — Brandon: Ruzicka (L, 0-1-0-0). Prince George: Shore (W, 1-1-0-0).

Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 0-3; Prince George: 0-2.

Referees — Nick Panter, Matthew Hicketts.

Linesmen — Caden Fanshaw, Riley Sandberg.

Attendance — 3,435 in Prince George.