Once again the Prince George Cougars snoozed their way through the second period and came up on the wrong side of the scoreboard in the end.
The Spokane Chiefs (35-22-4-3) scored twice in 41 seconds in the middle frame of Friday's Western Hockey League game at CN Centre going on to beat the Cougars 4-1. It was the Cougars (19-43-0-2) seventh straight loss. Spokane out shot the Prince 16-5 in the second period.
In 64 games this season the Cats have been out scored in second periods 93-40 by opponents.
Chiefs' centre Dylan Walchuk, a 19 year old from McBride, gave the visitors a three-goal cushion 44 seconds into the final period, much to the delight of his personal cheering section of fans among the 1,691 at the game.
With the win the Chiefs took over fourth place in the Western Conference standings as the Vancouver Giants (36-24-1-3) lost to the Medicine Hat Tigers 6-4. The two teams are guaranteed to face each other in the first round of the playoffs and are jockeying for home-ice advantage for the four-versus-five series.
Meanwhile, the Cougars fell five points in arrears of the eighth, and final, playoff spot in the west because the Everett Silvertips (17-37-1-8) beat the Seattle Thunderbirds (21-39-1-1) 4-0 to leapfrog the T-birds in the standings.
The Cats were out shot 38-18 as Drew Owsley suffered his 35 loss of the season. Mac Engel earned the win in the Chiefs' net.
Daulton Siwak gave the Cougars an early 1-0 lead after finding his own rebound behind Engel. Troy Bourke assisted on Siwak's 15th goal of the season. The Chiefs tied it when Marek Kalus was left alone in the slot and made a quick turn to fire the puck before Owsley could slide over.
But the Cougars took their usual catnap in the second period, as the Chiefs out shot the home side 16-5 and built up a 3-1 advantage on goals 41 seconds apart. Spokane took their first lead when defenceman Davis Vandane danced his way through the slot, past a fallen Chase Witala and put the puck on the stick of Todd Fiddler, who slid it into the open net.
The Chiefs went up by two goals on captain Darren Kramer's 20th goal of the season. Klaus had an assist for his second point of the night, while Mike Aviani also had a pair of helpers through 40 minutes.
The Cougars and Chiefs play the second half of the doubleheader tonight at 7 p.m.
Cat scratches: Several Cats have hit career-high points milestones including defenceman Cody Carlson (36); defenceman Ricard Blidstrand (21); forward Campbell Elynuik (14); forward Caleb Belter (10); and defenceman Dan Gibb (nine). Carlson is the only Cougar to play in all 63 games for Prince George this season and is on pace to play his 300 games played in his WHL when the Cats' host the T-birds on Wednesday.
