Tigers Defeat Cougars 5-2

By 250 News

Much better effort, same result.  The Prince George Cougars more than doubled the Medicine Hat Tigers in shots at The Arena in Medicine Hat, but the Tigers defeated the Cougars 5-2 Wednesday night.

The Cougars were looking to bounce back after a disappointing 6-5 loss Tuesday to the Edmonton Oil Kings to kick off a five game Alberta road trip.  The Cougars turned to James Priestner in goal, who was not only celebrating his 20th birthday, but was making his 100th appearance in the WHL.  The Tigers started out well and opened the scoring when Kellan Tochkin pushed the puck home on a goal mouth scramble at 7:02.  The Cougars began taking over the first, but Tyler Bunz stood tall, kicking out 13 shots.  The Tigers had eight in the first.

In the second period, the Tigers went on the power play and just one second after it ended, Reid Petryk scored on a rebound to make it 2-0 Tigers at 6:14.  Hunter Shinkaruk made it 3-0 at 9:57 and Dylan Busenius ripped home a slapper with 1:11 left in the second to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead through 40 minutes of play.  The Cougars again out-shot the Tigers in the period by a 14-6 margin.

The Cougars got on the board early in the third period when Wilson Dumais fired a shot from the left face-off circle past Bunz on the glove side for his first goal of the year.  The unassisted tally at 3:32 cut the Tigers lead to 4-1.  The Cougars hard work created a few third period power plays, but they could not solve Bunz again until Brett Connolly notched his 30th goal of the season on a feed from Taylor Stefishen at 16:43 on the man advantage.  Martin Marincin picked up an assist as well after a long pass to spring Stefishen loose at the Tigers blue line.  But Wacey Hamilton put the game out of reach with an empty net goal for a 5-2 Tigers win, their fourth straight victory.  The Cougars fall to 26-25-2-1 and have dropped back-to-back games to start their Alberta swing.  The Cougars went 1-for-7 on the power play and the Tigers were 0-for-1.

The Cougars get Thursday off before facing the Lethbridge Hurricanes Friday.  The Cougars next home game is Friday, February 18 against the Everett Silvertips, starting at 7:00pm at CN Centre.  Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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