Cougars come back to beat Tigers 7-5 Sunday
By James Tubb on October 22, 2023.
The Medicine Hat Tigers B.C. road trip game to a sour end Sunday night. The Tigers made a third period comeback effort before allowing a comeback by the Prince George Cougars who beat Medicine Hat 7-5. Medicine Hat finishes their road trip with a 3-2 record, with their last win coming Friday at Kamloops when they beat the Blazers 4-0. The Tigers opened the scoring late in the first period with a local kid getting on the board. Cayden Lindstrom of Chetwynd, B.C., with friends and family in the stands, knocked in a loose puck on a power play for the first goal of the game. Oasiz Wiesblatt and Gavin McKenna had the assists on the opening goal. Prince George knotted the game up late in the first with a goal from WHL rookie scoring leader Terik Parascak at the 19:54 mark of the opening frame. Medicine Hat scored early in the second period as Hunter St. Martin redirected a shot from McKenna on a power play for the 2-1 lead. Tomas Mrsic had the second assist on what was a five-minute power play for the Tigers after the WHL’s leading scorer Zac Funk was ejected from the game late in the second after a hit to the head penalty. The Cougars took over in the second period, scoring three answered goals for a 4-2 lead. Ondrej Becher found the back of the net at the 5:26 mark before Riley Heidt capitalized on a mini breakaway by tapping in a pass from Koehn Zuemmer. Becher scored again, tickling twine at the 11:09 mark for the two-goal lead. Medicine Hat trimmed the deficit to one late in the second, with Rhett Parsons firing a seeing eye shot that finds the back of the net with 1:14 left in the frame. Matt Paranych and Mrsic had the helpers on Parsons’ first goal of the season. The Tigers quickly gathered a lead early in the third period, rattling off two goals for a 5-4 advantage. Shane Smith wired home a shot 2:03 into the period. Josh Van Mulligen and the lone assist on Smith’s 10th goal of the season. Just a 1:10 later, Lindstrom knocked in a puck for his second of the game and 10th goal on the season. Andrew Basha and Dru Krebs recorded the assists. Prince George mounted their comeback in the second half of the third stanza. Hudson Thornton fired a shot from the point on a Cougars power play with 5:20 left in the game to tie the game up at 5-5. The goal also made the Cougars’ captain the franchise’s all-time leader in power play goals scored by a defenceman. With 1:17 left in the period, the Cougars competed the comeback and grabbed a lead on Bauer Dumanski’s first goal of the season. Ten seconds later, Parascak scored his 15th of the season when he capitalized on the empty net and recorded the final lead of 7-5 for Prince George. Evan May was between the pipes for the Tigers, he had 25 saves in his 10th start of the season. Across the ice from him, Ty Young turned aside 23 shots for seventh win between the pipes. Prince George outshot Medicine Hat 32-28 and capitalized on three of their six power plays. The Tigers were two for four on the man advantage. The Tigers (7-4-1) will make the near 13-hour trip back from Prince George and aren’t in action again until Friday when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings at Co-op Place. 15-14
