The Vancouver Giants received a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings Sunday night, as their seven-game home win streak was snapped by the Prince George Cougars. It was just the third regulation loss in 19 games for the Giants, who remain in seventh place in the Western Conference going into the Christmas break.

Carter Popoff scored his tenth of the year at 17:02 of the first period, a beauty of an individual effort. Popoff poke checked Zach Pochiro at the Cougar blueline, then held the puck on a 2-on-0 break and made a slick deke around a sprawling Ty Edmonds to open the scoring.

However, Vancouver gave up two in quick succession to start the second. Pochiro and Jordan Tkatch scored goals for the Cougars just 25 seconds apart for a lead they would never relinquish. Other than that brief lapse in the second period, the Giants dominated play, pouring 42 shots on Edmonds — including 25 in the second period alone — but couldn’t manufacture the tying goal  in front of 6,324 fans. Klarc Wilson added an insurance goal with one second remaining into an empty net. Edmonds, who picked up his 11th win on the season, was the unanimous choice for first star honours ahead of Vancouver skaters Brett Kulak and Tyler Benson.

Giants goaltender Payton Lee stopped 23 of 25 shots in the loss. It was the third game in three nights for both teams, who each went 0-for-4 on the power play, including a five-minute major in the third period to Giants captain Dalton Thrower for a high open-ice elbow.

View highlights of the game here.

The next Vancouver Giants game is December 28 vs the Kelowna Rockets.