Too much firepower, too little defence.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have plenty of the former, the Prince George Cougars are lacking in the latter.
It all added up to 5-2 loss for the Cougars Friday night in Medicine Hat.
Cole Sanford fired his league-leading 38th and 39th goals of the season and Trevor Cox, the Western Hockey League's points leader, finished with a goal and an assist. Dryden Hunt and Markus Eisenschmid also scored for Medicine Hat.
The Cougar goalscorers were Aaron Boyd, in the second period, and Brad Morrison, who picked up his 18th of the season in the third period. Jansen Harkins, just back from playing Thursday in the BMO CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game Thursday night in St. Catharines, Ont., contributed two assists.
Nick Schneider made 25 saves for the Tigers. Ty Edmonds took the loss in net for the Cougars, making 30 saves.
The victory left the Tigers (32-12-1-1) well-entrenched in first place in the Central Division as they won their third straight game. It was the eighth-straight loss for the Cougars (20-27-1-1), who slipped to fourth place in the B.C. Division when the Vancouver Giants beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 Friday in Lethbridge. The Cougars and Giants each have 42 points but Vancouver has played two fewer games.
"I thought we deserved a much better result than the outcome of the game was, I think we outplayed them most of the game, even though we got outshot," said Cougars assistant coach Roman Vopat.
"When you struggle like we do right now you don't get the lucky bounces. Unfortunately we worked extremely hard for 60 minutes and didn't get the bounces and they did and that was the difference in the end."
The Cougars lost 20-year-old left winger Jari Erricson 4:19 into the third period when he collided with Tigers defenceman Kyle Burroughs and took a shot to the head. Burroughs was handed a major penalty and game misconduct. and likely faces a suspension. Erricson missed all but four games last season with a concussion.
The Cougars failed to score on the ensuing five-minute power play and went scoreless in four manpower advantages, as did the Tigers.
"That was a big turning point in the game when we had a five-minute power play," said Vopat. "Even though we had some scoring chances and moved the puck well and I think we had one post, we didn't score a goal and that was the difference."
Cougars defenceman Tomas Andrlik made his Cougars debut on defence, his first game since being acquired in a trade from Prince Albert, Jan. 6. He missed eight games with an high ankle sprain.
The Cougars will try to snap their losing streak tonight in Lethbridge (6 p.m., CIRX 94.3 FM). On Sunday they'll play the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook ( 5 p.m. PST start).
