The Prince George Cougars earned their fourth straight preseason victory after holding off the Edmonton Oil Kings by a score of 2-1, in Saturday night WHL action. Chase Witala and David Soltes scored third period goals while Ty Edmonds turned aside 28 of the 29 shots he faced in goal. Oil Kings netminder Tyler Santos was outstanding in a losing effort, making 43 saves on the night.

PHOTO CREDIT - PGCougars.com

Prince George - September 8, 2013 - Saturday night in Prince George, the Cougars earned their fourth straight preseason victory after holding off Edmonton 2-1. Chase Witala and David Soltes scored third period goals for the Cougars while Ty Edmonds turned aside 28 of the 29 shots he faced in goal.

The first two periods yielded zero goals but plenty in the way of scoring opportunities.

Edmonton had four power plays in the first period, but Ty Edmonds made some timely saves in goal for Prince George. At the other end, Tyler Santos was equal to the task. His best save came off a David Soltes breakaway in the late stages of the first.

Prince George fired 22 shots on goal in the second period, but Tyler Santos stopped them all. Santos made big saves off of David Soltes, Chase Witala and Jordan Tkatch on separate occasions to keep the game scoreless.

Ty Edmonds wasn’t as busy, but still had to be sharp.

Both teams continued to receive ample power play time, but neither team could find a way to capitalize in the middle frame.

2:27 into the third period the offensive floodgates finally opened. Chase Witala notched his second goal of the preseason off a pass from Jansen Harkins. For Harkins it was his ninth point of the preseason, which puts him in a first place tie for the league lead.

Edmonton responded quickly with a goal of their own. Stephen Shmoorkoff let a shot go from the left point that deflected in off a Cougars defender. Edgars Kulda and Cole Benson recorded the assists.

Fortunately the Cougars were able to respond with a power play marker a few moments later. Tate Olson fired a point shot through traffic that Tyler Santos stopped, but David Soltes pounced on the rebound to make it 2-1 for the home side. For Soltes, it was his second goal of the preseason. Alex Forsberg earned the second assist on the Soltes goal.

Special teams were once again a huge factor as Edmonton failed to score on all 10 of their power play chances, while the Cougars were one-for-seven.

Tyler Santos and Ty Edmonds were both rock-solid for their respective teams in goal. Santos stopped 43 of the 45 shots he faced, while Edmonds’ lone blemish was the Shmoorkoff deflection goal.

The victory improves the Cougars preseason record to 4-0. Now they’ll get set for a full week of practice before they wrap up their preseason on Saturday, September 14th against Kamloops at home.