The streak is over.
The Prince George Cougars six-game winning streak came to an end Monday on a Family Day matinee with an 8-4 loss to the Portland Winterhawks at CN Centre.
"They have a boatload of good players, our talent didn't match their talent," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We showed them too much respect. If not for [Cougars goalie Adam] Beukeboom, they probably would've run away from us in the first."
The Cougars loss means they are now four points back of the Tri-City Americans for the eighth and final playoff spot in the WHL's Western Conference. Prince George falls to 24-27-2-5 and 55 points. Tri-City beat Kamloops 2-1 Monday.
The Winterhawks came into Prince George on a streak of their own, a 13-game winning streak, and improved to 39-12-2-3 and 83 points to remain in second place in the Western Conference.
Portland took control of the game early on goals from Garrett Haar and Chase De Leo (power play) in the opening frame for a 2-0 lead. They also outshot the Cougars 16-7 as Beukeboom made several point-blank saves.
In the second period, Cougars centre Zach Pochiro put Prince George on the board when he slipped the puck underneath Winterhawks netminder Brendan Burke from the top of the crease. Portland replied 30 seconds later on Oliver Bjorkstrand's 29th goal of the season.
They added two more when De Leo notched his second of the game and Paul Bittner tallied with the man advantage.
Pochiro netted his second of the game, his 23rd for the Cougars, when he deflected a shot from the point with just over a minute left in the period.
In the third, Brendan Morrison tapped in the puck with four seconds left in the power play to narrow Portland's lead to 5-3.
Taylor Leir beat a sprawling Beukeboom on the side of the net to give Portland a three-goal advantage.
Marc McNulty decreased the Cougars deficit on a wrist shot at the 11:24 mark. But, like the second period, Portland responded 30 seconds later on a goal from Dominic Turgeon. They scored their eighth goal of the night with 22 seconds left on the power play and 90 seconds left in the game.
The Winterhawks outshot the Cougars 50-32.
Portland finished the afternoon with three power play goals and two short-handed markers, while Prince George also tallied three goals with the man-advantage.
Only three out of the 12 total goals were scored even-strength.
"Our special teams, that sends a message that we have to be five-on-five, we can't take that many penalties playing them," said Holick. "We didn't pay attention to detail and we paid for it."
Monday's game was only the second meeting between the two teams. The Hawks clobbered the Cougars 9-2 way back on Sept. 20 in Portland's season-opener.
They'll meet again Wednesday night at CN Centre for a 7 p.m. faceoff.
"We weren't as aggressive as we should've been tonight," said Holick. "We need to match them step-for-step"
