Friday night in Calgary, the Prince George Cougars fell 5-3 to the Calgary Hitmen. Victor Rask and Zane Jones each had a goal and an assist for Calgary, while Troy Bourke and Chase Witala each had two points for the Cougars.

The first period was extremely even, with each team scoring twice. Calgary drew first blood when Jesse Zgraggen skated into the right wing circle and beat Brett Zarowny for his third of the season at 2:55 of the first period.

Prince George countered at 7:04 of the first when Dallas Ehrhardt grabbed a loose puck in the slot area, and beat Chris Driedger for his second of the season. Troy Bourke and Chase Witala did a great job down low behind the goal to set the play up for Ehrhardt.

Marc McNulty then gave the Cougars the lead at 12:11 on the power play. Once again it was Bourke and Witala who got the play started, and then McNulty buried a wrist shot from the point for his seventh goal of the season.

The lead would not last long though as Calgary would tie it at 13:49. Alex Roach took the puck from his own zone, and skated all the way into the Cougars zone before cutting to the middle of the slot and beating Brett Zarowny with his 11^th of the season.

Both Driedger and Zarowny made some difficult saves in the first period to keep the game within reach for their teams. Zarowny’s biggest save came off a two-on-one chance, where he went from right to left and denied Victor Rask on a point-blank opportunity.

Early in the second, a scary moment for Calgary defenceman Alex Roach who took a puck off the throat while blocking a shot. Roach would stay down for several minutes, and eventually had to be helped off the ice by a number of trainers and medical staff. Roach did not return to the game.

Calgary took a 3-2 lead at 6:45 thanks to some shorthanded heroics from Greg Chase. After a defensive miscue in the Cougars zone, Calgary’s Jake Virtanen centered the puck for a pinching Chase, who scored from the slot.

Late in the period, the Cougars went on another power play, and thought they had tied the game when Klarc Wilson lifted a backhand shot (seemingly) across the goal line. Driedger stopped the puck with his glove, but Wilson and his linemates thought that the puck had crossed the line regardless. No goal was signaled on the play, and no red light went on, but that didn’t stop Wilson and his teammates from celebrating.

After a lengthy review, the referees waived off the goal, which kept Calgary ahead by a 3-2 score.

On the very next shift, Calgary raced down the ice, and after Cody Sylvester’s centering pass was blocked, but puck found it’s way perfectly to Zane Jones, who fed Victor Rask back-door for his fourth of the season.

Rask and Jones would then combine on another goal at 12:03 of the third period. Victor Rask skated down the left wing side, and centered a pass that found it’s way through several bodies and onto the stick of Jones, who backhanded home his 17^th goal of the season.

Late in the game, Zach Pochiro was hauled down on a breakaway and earned a penalty shot. Pochiro raced in on Chris Driedger and made a nice move to the backhand to net his sixth of the season.

The final shots on goal were 34-22 for Calgary who despite their five goals went zero-for-six on the man advantage. Prince George went one-for-five on their power play chances.

Prince George (13-25-2-4) will now head to Red Deer for the second of three games in three nights. Puck drop goes Saturday at 6:30 PM local time.