The wheels in Winnipeg fell off in the second period and that set the stage for a bumpy ride the rest of the way for the Prince George Cougars.
Winnipeg Ice right winger Isaac Johnson broke open a 1-1 with back-to-back goals 2 1/2 minutes apart and the Ice scored two more in the third period Tuesday to cap a 5-1 victory.
It was the Cougars’ first regulation loss after four games of their six-game WHL East Division roadtrip.
Dawson Barteaux, on a Winnipeg power play 2:18 into the third period, and Peyton Krebs put the finishing touches on for the Ice (26-15-1-0) as they strengthened their grip on first place in the East Division.
"We got off to good start but I think we started to get a little ahead of ourselves and made some mistakes with the puck and they started generating some momentum," said Cougars associate coach Jason Smith.
"We got a bit loose on our d-zone coverage and when a team like that, with all the skill they have, spends time in the offensive zone they're going to build a lot of momentum and they kind of slowly took the game over."
Liam Hughes made 21 saves in the Winnipeg nets to improve his record to 12-3-0-0. Tyler Brennan, a Winnipeg native,drew the start in goal for the Cougars and stopped 29 of 34 shots to drop to 3-4-0-0 on the season.
Benjamin Zloty collected three assists.
The Cougars scored on their first shot of the game. Majid Kaddoura, an 18-year-old defenceman acquired last week in a trade from the Saskatoon Blades, wristed in a shot from just inside the blueline for his third goal of the season and first point as a Cougar, with Josh Maser running the screen in front of Hughes.
The Ice tied it at 16:26 on a 2-on-2 rush with a long shot that sailed in on the stick side of Tyler Brennan. Former Cougar Jackson Leppard drew the primary assist, the 26th point for the 19-year-old winger, who played three seasons with the Cats before he was traded to Winnipeg five games into the season on Oct. 19.
"We were 1-1 after one and were in the game bit we were struggling to really execute and pay attention to the detail you need to when you're playing a highly-skilled team," said Smith.
"We got caught on the outside of the rink, we were kind of puck-watching and we didn't have good sticks. You need to have that focus and awareness and keep your head on a swivel and your stick on the ice and make sure you've got stick on puck at all times. We were chasing the play a little bit and allowed some pucks to go through us, which allowed them to get some Grade-A opportunities."
The Ice have won 12 of their last 16 games.
The Cougars (11-23-3-4) remained eight points behind the Seattle Thunderbirds for the second wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference. Seattle (17-20-2-1) has one game in hand. The Cats are nine points back of the Vancouver Giants for third place in the B.C. Division. The Giants (17-18-2-2) have played three fewer games than the Cougars.
The Ice lost leading scorer Connor McLennon to an apparent shoulder injury midway through the first period when he collided with a Cougar defenceman. McLennon had 21 goals and 49 points in 41 games this season.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars' six-game East Division tour stops Wednesday (5 p.m. PT start, 94.3 FM The Goat) in Brandon against the Wheat Kings (21-17-1-2, third in East) and wraps up Friday in Moose Jaw against the well-rested Warriors (11-25-2-0, sixth in East)... In that Leppard deal, the Cougars acquired defenceman Marco Creta, forward Holden Kodak, Winnipeg's third-round bantam picks in 2020 and 2021, and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2022... In what's considered a bountiful draft year for eligible bantam players born in 2005, the Cougars have three first-round picks (their own; Portland's, via the Dennis Cholowski trade; and Medicine Hat's, acquired in the Rhinehart trade with Saskatoon)... Seventeen-year-old defenceman Aiden Reeves played his second game for the Cougars this season. He was added to the roster Friday and hadn't played in the WHL since October. The six-foot-one, 170-pound Reeves, a Prince George native, had three goals and 15 points in 20 games this season with the major midget Cariboo Cougars. He also suited up for seven games in the BCHL with the Spruce Kings... The ice surface at Wayne Fleming Arena on the University of Manitoba campus where the Ice play home games is 200 feet long and 90 feet wide, five feet wider than NHL-sized rinks.
