The Medicine Hat Tigers rode a five-goal second period to a 5-4 win over the Prince George Cougars on Wednesday night at the CN Centre.
After falling into a two-goal deficit early in the second, the Tigers struck for five unanswered goals before holding off a third-period push to secure the victory.
Mitchell Kohner opened the scoring for Prince George less than two minutes into the first period, then Cole Moberg doubled up on the lead 51 seconds into the middle frame.
Tyler Preziuso put the Tigers on the board five minutes later, then James Hamblin and Brett Kemp scored three minutes apart to take over the lead just past the halfway point of the period.
Hamblin struck again for his team-leading 11th goal of the season three minutes later, then Baxter Anderson stretched the gap to three with his first of the year – capping off a five-goal barrage in less than nine minutes.
Moberg added his second of the night early in the third. The Cougars then got a chance to close the gap even further when Tigers defenceman Parker Gavlas was given five minutes and a game misconduct for a high hit on Ilijah Colina.
Jack Sander scored late in the advantage to bring the Cougars back within a goal, but Hat goaltender Garin Bjorklund refused to let anything else slip past him and escaped with a 24-save victory.
Medicine Hat improved to 11-5-1-0 with the win, while Bjorklund pushed his Western Hockey League record to 7-0-0-0 with his fifth win of the season.
Taylor Gauthier stopped 24 shots in the loss, which drops Prince George to 4-12-0-1 on the year.
The Tigers continue their B.C. Division swing Friday in Kelowna against the Rockets (9-5-1-1) at 8:05 p.m.
