It was a hard-fought, one-goal loss against a powerhouse team. Unfortunately, it didn't help the Prince George Cougars inch any closer to a spot in the Western Hockey League playoffs.
The Cougars fell 3-2 to the Medicine Hat Tigers Tuesday night at CN Centre. The Cats got a brilliant 41-save effort from goaltender Drew Owsley and a late third-period goal from Caleb Belter but that wasn't enough for them to steal a point or two away from the Tigers, who moved to 38-21-2-3 on the season. The Cougars slipped to 19-41-0-2 and remained in last place in the Western Conference. They failed to make up ground on the eighth-place Seattle Thunderbirds and seventh-place Victoria Royals, both of whom suffered losses on Tuesday. Seattle dropped a 3-1 decision to Tri-City and Victoria was beaten 4-2 by Spokane. With 62 of 72 games now in the books, the Cats are still four points out of the playoffs.
They did make things interesting in the dying minutes of the third when Belter took a harmless-looking shot off the right wing and snuck the puck under the arm of Medicine Hat goalie Tyler Bunz, who was making his first start in weeks after recovering from an injury.
The Tigers led 1-0 after the first period and 3-1 after the second.
In the middle frame, the Tigers moved into a 2-0 lead when they burned the Cougars while shorthanded. On the play, Medicine Hat won a battle for the puck in the corner and Dylan Bredo found pinching blueliner Alex Theriau, who fired a shot past Owsley.
The Cougars got that one back in highlight fashion, courtesy of Troy Bourke. The second-year forward used a pro-style move to get free from three Medicine Hat defenders and beat Bunz with a backhander.
The pretty goal gave the Cats some jump but the Tigers quickly snuffed out a possible momentum change when Hunter Shinkaruk scored his second of the night and 42nd of the season on a feed from Emerson Etem.
The lone goal in the first was a power-play marker off the stick of Shinkaruk, who was standing at the back-door side of the Prince George net and converted a slap-pass by defenceman Matthew Konan.
In the opening 20 minutes, the Cougars had their share of chances but failed to beat Bunz. The Medicine Hat netminder stoned the Cats in the first minute when they jumped on a turnover inside the Tigers' blueline. Later, Belter and Daulton Siwak both missed the target on point-blank opportunities. Before the period was done, Bunz also stopped a dangerous backhander through traffic by Jesse Forsberg.
Etem, dazzling all night, finished with three assists.
The Tigers outshot the Cougars 44-21. On the power-play, the Tigers went 1-for-2, while the Cats were 0-for-2.
Announced attendance was 1,564.
The teams will be back on CN Centre ice tonight. The opening face-off is at 7.
