Bad start, great ending.
The Prince George Cougars wrapped up a four-game roadtrip Saturday night in Medicine Hat with a 5-2 win over the Tigers. Chase Witala scored two goals to lead the Cougars to their 12th win of the season. Jared Bethune, Brogan O'Brien and Jansen Harkins also scored for Prince George.
Special teams played a large role in the outcome. The Cougars went 2-for-3 on the power play and successfully killed off all nine Medicine Hat power-play chances. Nick McBride continued to play exceptionally well in goal for the Cougars since being acquired in a trade two weeks a ago from Prince Albert. The 18-year-old made 29 saves Saturday to earn his fourth win in six starts this season. He's been filling in for Ty Edmonds, who suffered a hamstring injury in a game Nov. 13 against Edmonton.
"Your goalie is always your best penalty killer and (McBride) was awesome," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We were down to three defencemen for a long time and our guys gutted it out .."
The Cougars lost 20-year-old Joseph Carvalho 3:38 into the second period for 17 minutes of penalty time when he stepped in to defend Bethune, who had taken an illegal hit to the head from Tigers' Mason Shaw. Not long after that, captain Sam Ruopp left the game with an upper-body injury after blocking a shot. That left rookie Joel Lakusta, Shaun Dosanjh (who also left with an upper-body injury in the third period), Tate Olson and Shane Collins to get the job done on the blue line.
The Cats started their road trip with a 9-1 loss in Kamloops on Nov. 15, followed by a 3-1 loss Wednesday in Calgary.
