The Victoria Royals welcomed back Nate Misskey and Austin Zemlak from long injury layoffs Friday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, bud the good news ended there.
The Western Conference-leading Prince George Cougars showed why they are the No. 1-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, blowing open a close game early in the second period and defeating the host Royals 6-1 in front of a crowd of 3,769 at the Memorial Centre.
After Terik Parascak for the Cougars and Tyson Laventure for the Royals traded first-period goals, the Cougars (45-15-1-3) shifted gears in the second and the Royals (28-28-5-4), who have almost 30 fewer points than Prince George, couldn’t keep up.
Hudson Thornton and Oren Shtrom scored 41 seconds part six minutes into the middle period, and then Parascak, the Cougars super rookie, potted his 39th goal of the season with just 2.6 seconds left in the middle period.
Thornton and Jett Lajoie added third-period goals and Ty Young made 38 saves to pick up the win for the Cougars, who won for the fifth straight game.
Braden Holt made 34 saves for the Royals, who dropped into seventh place in the conference as the Vancouver Giants beat the Kamloops Blazers 3-1 on Friday night at the Langley Events Centre to move one point up on Victoria.
Victoria and Prince George will square off again tonight at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre before the Cougars head to Langley to take on the Vancouver Giants on Sunday and the Royals prepare to host the Wenatchee Wild on Wednesday night.
