Early in the 2009-10 Western Hockey League season, the Chilliwack Bruins are turning bad starts into an art-form.

Sluggish first periods have been a big problem for the Bruins, who’ve struggled out of the gate in each of their four games.

Saturday night’s start against Prince George was particularly awful, with the home side trailing 4-0 before fans had a chance to find their seats.

The Cougars eventually settled for a 7-6 final in a wild game that Chilliwack could have won, if not for that first period meltdown.

“The Cougars usually come out hard and we weren’t ready for them tonight,” said Prince George native and Chilliwack alternate captain Brandon Manning. “They capitalized on a couple bad bounces, but we’ve got to battle through that. There’s no excuses.”

The Cougars opened the scored five minutes and 21 seconds in on a powerplay goal by Robbie Ciolfi.

Prince George native Brett Connolly scored the first of his three goals at 7:06 followed by Brock Hirsche at 7:46 and Greg Fraser at 10:15.

“It’s tough when you get down in this league, and I think some of the guys were hanging their heads after the first couple goals,” Manning admitted.

Having given up four goals on seven shots to that point, Lucas Gore was yanked from the Chilliwack net and replaced by Mark Friesen.

And when Ryan Howse struck on a short-handed breakaway at 13:09, there was still a sense that a comeback was possible.

“I think there was a sense of that all night,” Manning said. “We just didn’t bear down like we should have when it was 4-1.”

Down by three entering the second period, Chilliwack quickly coughed up a pair of backbreaking goals to Connolly and Makin before finally waking up.

A Manning power play tally at 14:50 gave the announced crowd of 2,960 something to cheer about, and Mitch Topping’s first WHL goal at 18:16 sent the Bruins into the final frame with a slim glimmer of hope.

Connolly completed his hat-trick six minutes into the third period, putting PG on top 7-3, but the Bruins clawed back again with goals by Travis Belohrad and Dylen McKinlay.

Chilliwack head coach Marc Habscheid pulled Friesen for the extra attacker with well over two minutes left, and Kevin Sundher scored with just four ticks showing on the game clock.

That was it as the Bruins simply ran out of time.

One could laud the Bruins for their never-say-die attitude. There’s something to be said for battling back from a five-goal deficit.

But as Habscheid said last week after a road loss in Kamloops, everything that happens in a game like this needs to be taken with a grain of salt because the other team has probably stepped off the gas pedal.

“I think you’ve got to take that into account, but at the same time we did some good things,” Manning said. “You’re just not going to win many games giving up seven goals. Marc really stresses hating to lose, and we need to get that quick or we won’t be around for very long.”

Midway through the third period, David Robinson was on the receiving end of a knee-on-knee hit in the neutral zone, and had to be helped off the ice.

It looked freaky at the time, but Robinson was walking around the dressing room afterwards, and thinks he should be OK to play next weekend.

“It doesn’t seem to be anything serious,” Robinson said. “When it happened, I was really scared because it didn’t feel too right. So it’s good news that it’s nothing major.”

Chilliwack visits Kelowna on Friday night before returning home to host the Rockets Saturday night at Prospera Centre (7 p.m.).

l The Bruins earned their first win of the season Friday night in Seattle, taking a 4-1 decision.

Jonathan Parker opened the scoring for Seattle, and Chilliwack came back with two Ryan Howse goals and singles by Isak Quakenbush and Roman Horak.

It was Chilliwack’s first win in Seattle.