Friday night in Medicine Hat the Prince George Cougars dropped a 5-2 decision to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Cole Sanford paced the Tigers offense with two goals and an assist while Jansen Harkins recorded two assists in response for the Cougars. It was the type of game where the Cougars hung around, twice erasing two goal deficits but fell just short of tying it up.

Cole Sanford got the Tigers offense rolling at 5:12 of the first period. He pounced on a loose puck in the slot, and ripped a shot past Ty Edmonds for his 38^th goal of the season.

Shortly after the 1-0 goal the Cougars got into some penalty trouble when Kirk Bear and Tate Olson took penalties 24 seconds apart. The Tigers failed to score on their five-on-three power play chance, which lasted 94 seconds. The Cougars kept the deficit at 1-0 and the first period ended at that same score.

8:25 into the second Medicine Hat extended their lead to 2-0 when Dryden Hunt raced down the right wing and snuck a shot underneath the blocker of Edmonds and in for his 21^st of the season.

Late in the second the Cougars got back within one when Jansen Harkins won a faceoff directly to Aaron Boyd who was positioned behind Harkins at the top of the circle. Boyd wasted no time releasing his shot which went right overtop of Nick Schneider’s blocker and in for his fourth of the season.

The Tigers took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission but the Cougars were coming on.

At 4:12 of the third period the complexion of the game changed when Tigers defenceman Kyle Burroughs was assessed a five-minute major penalty for checking to the head of Cougars forward Jari Erricson. Erricson didn’t play another shift, and Burroughs was ejected from the game.

Over the next five minutes, the Cougars moved the puck around aggressively, and came awfully close to tying the score on a few different occasions but were unable to solve Schneider.

Moments after the penalty had expired the Tigers restored their two-goal cushion when Cole Sanford buried his second of the game off a pass from Dryden Hunt.

Back came the Cougars less than 90 seconds later. Josh Connolly fed the puck down behind the Tigers goal to Jansen Harkins. Harkins shimmied off the defenceman and centered the puck to Brad Morrison in front who made no mistake for his 18^th of the season and again the Cougars were back within a goal.

A minute and 45 seconds later though the Tigers restored their two goal lead when Trevor Cox slid a low shot through Edmonds from the right-hand side of the net and the score was 4-2 for the Tigers.

Marcus Eisenschmid iced the game with an empty-netter at 19:15 of the third to give the Tigers the three goal lead and the victory.

Both teams finished the game zero-for-four on the power play. Medicine Hat outshot the Cougars 32-27.

With the loss, the Cougars winless streak is now at eight games. Their loss coupled with Vancouver and Kamloops victories means that there is now a three-way tie for third place in the B.C. Division as Vancouver, Kamloops and Prince George all have 42 points.

Next up for the Cougars – The Lethbridge Hurricanes tomorrow night at the Enmax Centre.