The goals came by the bunches once again in ‘Catfight Part Two’ between the Prince George Cougars and the Medicine Hat Tigers Wednesday night.
The visiting Cats scored three goals in a span of 103 seconds in the second period, which would ultimately lift them to a 7-3 beating of Prince George for their 10th straight victory on Northern BC ice dating back to December 12th, 2007.
“You got to give credit to the Tigers, they’re a great team,” says Cougars Head Coach Richard Matvichuk on 94.3 the GOAT’s post-game show.
“We played well at times, and we even played great at times, but for most of the game we were outnumbered on most of the rushes. They got the better hand this week, so we’ll move on to the next game as we hit the road here.”
.@PGCougars Coach Matvichuk on allowing goals to come in bunches in both games against @tigershockey this week | #CityOfPG #Sports @mypgnow pic.twitter.com/MND250P8Dm
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) November 23, 2017
Cougars’ Alternate Captain Brogan O’Brien opened the scoring just under eight minutes in, but Medicine Hat answered with two goals before the first 20 minutes timed out, including one with 16 seconds left.
The Tigers’ aforementioned scoring spree came early in the second, which forced Matvichuk to replace starting netminder Taylor Gauthier with Isaiah DiLaura; Tavin Grant was a healthy scratch for the evening.
Cougars’ newly-appointed Captain Dennis Cholowski believes the team needs to look past those unfortunate errors on the defensive side of the puck.
“We just need to keep our heads up and it’s important to stay upbeat on and off the ice. It sucks obviously to have that happen to us two nights in a row, but we need to regroup and focus on these next few games at hand.”
Before the 40-minute mark, Cougars leading scorer Kody McDonald lit two more lamps, his 14th and 15th goals this season, to keep the home team in the game.
.@PGCougars back on the board courtesy of Kody McDonald; his 14th of the year cuts the lead down to 5-2 for @tigershockey | #CityOfPG #Sports @mypgnow pic.twitter.com/3K84OFzVyB
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) November 23, 2017
The final period of regulation saw the Cougars down 6-3, but it turned quiet on the scoreboard despite several opportunities.
The Tigers would add one more and goaltender Michael Bullion would stop 42 of 45 shots in the 20-year-old’s sixth win of 2017-18.
The Cougars’ record falls to 9-11-2-2, but thanks to a couple losses from Vancouver and Kelowna, they still remain two points back of the Giants for third place in the BC Division.
. @tigershockey take the rematch. Cougars look to turn it around on the road Saturday versus @blazerhockey.#WHL #CityofPG pic.twitter.com/JRYriO84Bd
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) November 23, 2017
Looking ahead to Prince George’s upcoming road trip through the Okanagan, Coach Matvichuk echos his Captain’s philosophy.
“We’ll do some team bonding over these next few games and look at the positives we have within our team. Like Cholowski said, we have to stick together & lift each other up if we want to get better. These next two games are against divisional opponents, so we know it’ll be fast-paced, physical battles and we’ll be ready for them.”
The Cats will face the Kamloops Blazers Saturday at 7PM, followed by a clash with the Rockets in Kelowna Wednesday at 7:05PM.
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