Hitmen fall to Cougars in a shootout

David Soltes scored the shootout winner in the fourth round as the Prince George Cougars beat the Calgary Hitmen 4-3 Friday night at CN Centre.

The Hitmen forced overtime when Zane Jones scored on the powerplay with 3:33 remaining.

Brady Brassart and Terrell Draude also netted goals for Calgary who trailed 2-1 after the first period and 3-2 after 40 minutes.

For Draude, it was his first career goal in the Western Hockey League while Brassart recorded his 200th career point.

Chase Witala scored twice for Prince George who also got a single marker from Zach Pochiro.

Momentum swung back and forth as the Cougars outshot the Hitmen 20-7 in the second period only to see the Hitmen carry the play in the third period with a shot clock lead of 19-4.

On the night, Calgary outshot Prince George 39-25.  The Hitmen went 1-3 on the powerplay while killing all three Cougar chances.

Despite the shootout loss the Hitmen have now picked up a point in nine straight games going 6-0-1-2 in that span.

Overall Calgary leads the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference with 20 points holding a record of 9-3-1-2. 

Calgary Hitmen 3 at Prince George Cougars 4 (SO)
Friday, October 25, 2013 - CN Centre - Prince George, BC

Calgary 1 1 1 0 - 3
Prince George 2 1 0 0 - 4

1st Period
1, Prince George, Pochiro 5 (Harkins, Forsberg), 4:15.
2, Calgary, Draude 1 (Rissling, Mahon), 6:08.
3, Prince George, Witala 7 (Bourke), 15:41.
Penalties-No Penalties

2nd Period
4, Prince George, Witala 8 12:16.
5, Calgary, Brassart 8 (Helgesen, Jones), 14:24.
Penalties-Thrower Cal (interference), 3:37.

3rd Period
6, Calgary, Jones 5 (Fazleev, Virtanen), 16:27 (PP).
Penalties-Carvalho P.g (holding), 5:27; McNulty P.g (slashing), 11:17; Forsberg P.g (cross checking), 14:54; Virtanen Cal (high sticking), 17:12; Chase Cal (tripping), 19:43.

OT Period
No Scoring.
Penalties-No Penalties

Shootout
Calgary 1 (Brassart NG, Chase NG, Fazleev G, Virtanen NG),
Prince George 2 (Pochiro NG, Witala NG, Tkatch G, Soltes G).
Shots on Goal
Calgary 8-7-19-5-0-39. Prince George 8-20-4-2-1-35.
Power Play Opportunities
Calgary 1 / 3; Prince George 0 / 3.
Goalies
Calgary, Driedger 4-3-1-2 (34 shots-31 saves). Prince George, Edmonds 7-3-0-1 (39 shots-36 saves).
A-1,588
Referees-Kevin Bennett (29), Chris Crich (20).
Linesmen-Ryan Dawson (134), Korey Martens (41).