Hawks vs. Cougars - Game 44 · Wednesday January 16, 2008

As the Prince George Citizen put it:

Put the six-game losing streak to bed. Credit the league’s worst team with an assist.

First period goals by Gardner (17), Riege (5), and Poulter (12) was all that was needed by the Prince George Cougars to win 5-2 over the Portland Winter Hawks.

17 year old goaltender Ian Curtis earned his first win as a Cougar, stopping 33 shots. His counter part Jordan made 27 saves.

The Cougars scored the first goal of the game – the 18th time in 44 games the Cats have opened the scoring. Captain Greg Gardner parked himself in front of the net and tipped a wrist shot that Patrik Magnusson launched from the point.

The Hawks recovered that when Tristan King, who has five goals on the season and three of those against the Cougars, beat Curtis, who arrived last week in the deal that sent Jesse Dudas to the Swift Current Broncos.

Brad Riege, who poked home his own rebound when it sat deep in the crease, and Alex Poulter, who scored his 12th of the season but first since Nov. 6, put the Cougars ahead going to the second period.

Ex-Cougars draft pick Tyler Swystun was booed by fans with regularity. Swystun spurned the Cougars after being a first-round choice in the 2003 bantam draft, and it didn’t help that he bumped Curtis late in the first period. Cougars winger Colin Haas helped guide Swystun into Curtis, then Haas drove Swystun’s head into the ice as part of the retaliation.

Swystun finished the night with one assist.

“I thought (the fans in Prince George) would’ve forgotten about me by now, so I didn’t expect that,” said Swystun, a 19-year-old who played in the AJHL at 16, went to the University of Michigan at 17, then left the NCAA to join the Medicine Hat Tigers a season ago, his WHL rights traded for Brett Robertson.

“Sometimes it’s tough to play in those conditions, but we didn’t play our game tonight and it showed in the final score.”

The Tyrell brothers hooked up to put the Cougars ahead 4-1. Tyrell the younger, Corey, tipped his brother Dana’s shot during a power play, helping Dana record a career-high four assists.

Much-travelled Portland winger Keith Voytechek – the Hawks are his fifth team after stops in Vancouver, Tri-City, Chilliwack and Moose Jaw – beat Curtis on a power play seven minutes later, but that was all the scoring heading to the third.

It wasn’t a perfect night for the Cougars’ much-maligned penalty killing unit, but it was one of the best this season. Forget that they gave up that power-play goal in the second, but focus on the 1:28 of two-man time killed with the score 4-2. Curtis’s sprawling glove save, diving to his left to rob Jacob Dietrich, negated the best scoring opportunity.

But Curtis was the difference, particularly with his 17 saves in a power-play-filled second period.

“It would’ve been nice to beat these guys like we did back in Portland,” said White, whose team has now lost four in a row, a slide that started after a 3-1 win over the Cougars on Jan. 6.

“Sometimes they don’t get 91 shots on ya… the Cougars capitalized on their chances.”

Next up Prince George again back-to-back on the road.

Attendance: 2302
CN Centre

 SCORING  1  2  3  Total 
Cougars  3  1  1  5
Hawks  1  1  0  2

SHOTS  0  2  0  Total 
Cougars  11  9  8  28
Hawks  9  18  8  35

Game Description
Game Summary

Three Stars of the Game

Tyrell (PG), Gardner (PG), Curtis (PG)

Fight Card

McGill/Cumming – First period tussel. Not many blows thrown.

— S. Blanchard

Comment

Portland Trades Guggenberger · Thursday January 10, 2008

On the final trade day, the Portland Winter Hawks trade 18 year old goaltender Mark Guggenberger to the Swift Current Broncos for a conditional draft pick in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft. The Hawks since the beginning of the season have been looking to move one of their three goalies.

Guggenberger was sent home earlier in the season for disciplinary issues, Jordan White stepped up as a quality backup goalie and the three goalie problem for the Hawks was solved.

Before Guggenberger was sent home he was the most marketable trade bait for the Hawks. Nationally he was highly ranked as an 18 year old. As a comparison, Prospect Rankings for North America goalies ranked Guggenberger 7th overall ahead of Tyler Sexson (Van) 8th, Kurtis Mucha (Port) 16th, Justin Leclerc (Leth) 20th, Torrie Jung (Kel) 24th and only Linden Rowat (Reg) 4th was ranked higher.

Switft Current also traded Ian Smith their backup goalie to Prince George and Guggenberger will probably get the job of backup goaltender behind Travis Yonkman who is having an excellent season.

Guggenberger appeared in three games for the Hawks, posting a record of 1-2-0-0 with a 4.00 GAA and a .891 save percentage before being sent home on November 17, 2007.

— S. Blanchard

Comment

US Divisional News · Friday January 18, 2008

— S. Blanchard

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