The Prince George Cougars suffered their first road loss of the season falling 3-2 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday night.
Prince George fell behind early on a pair of power-play goals from Russell Maxwell which staked the Hurricanes to a 2-0 lead early in the second period of the Western Hockey League contest in front of 2,722 spectators at the Enmax Centre.
Cougars captain Brock Hirsche pulled the visitors to within one at 2-1 on a power play midway through the second and Jari Erricson notched his second goal of the season, and the road trip, in the first minute of the third period to tie the game at 2-2.
But Sam Mckechnie scored the winning goal with less than five minutes to play for the Hurricanes.
The Cougars attempt to tie the game was hampered by a late minor penalty to defenceman Dan Gibb for checking to the head.
The Cougars (5-2-1) fired 27 shots at former Cats' goalie Ty Rimmer in the Lethbridge net while Brett Zarowny faced 28 shots in the Cougars' net. The 20-year-old Rimmer improved to 3-5 this season while Zarowny has a 4-2 record.
Colin Jacobs extended his point streak to eight games with an assist on Hirsche's goal.
The Cougars were without centre Zach Pochiro who was serving the first of a three-game suspension for a checking from behind major he picked up in Wednesday's win in Kootenay.
The Cougars wrap up the three-game road swing tonight in Medicine Hat against the Tigers at 5:30 p.m. (PST).
