It was a disappointing conclusion for the Prince George bantam tier 2 Cougars at their home tournament last weekend.
The Cougars (1-4) wrapped up the tournament Sunday morning with a 6-4 loss to Kitimat in the seventh-place consolation game at Kin 3. Mitch Turko had a hat trick to lead Smithers to a 4-3 win over Williams Lake in the gold-medal game.
After opening the tournament with a 7-5 win over Kitimat on Friday, the Cougars went on to lose their next four games, starting with a 6-5 loss to Terrace. Prince George concluded the round robin Saturday with a 8-3 loss to Dawson Creek before dropping their semifinal game 6-5 to Kamloops.
In their final loss, the Cougars received goals from Tyler Macsemniuk, captain Rob Raju (2) and Matthias Urbanski. The Cougars opened the scoring and led 4-3 until Kitimat tied the game late in the second period. The game remained tied until the final eight minutes when Kitimat notched two goals 32 seconds apart - the second on a penalty shot.
For the Cougars the 24 goals they scored overall was the highest total they had in a tournament all season. Macsemniuk led Prince George with five goals and eight assists while Raju had four goals and eight helpers. The Cougars had to rely on goalie Devyn Wasylyshen in all five games as Rylan Anderson was unable to participate in game action due to an injury.
Terrace took the bronze with a 4-3 shootout win over Dawson Creek.
The Cougars head to Dawson Creek this weekend for a four-game tournament and are in Williams Lake, Feb. 15, for another tournament.
