NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin makes a glove save in the first period of Wednesday night WHL action at Co-op Place against the Prince George Cougars.
Prince George won the battle of the cats Wednesday night at Co-op place.
The Cougars put up an eight-spot, beating the Medicine Hat Tigers 8-1. The bloated loss snaps a three-game win streak for the Tigers.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says they didn’t play well enough and were hampered by a lack of discipline.
“There was lots of good things in the first half of that game,” Desjardins said. “we were out shooting them by 10 or 12, they have a good hockey team. We’re really short staffed, our guys played really hard early. But then we took penalties and they got some power play goals on us and that was the difference.”
The Tigers surrendered three power play goals on seven Cougars’ man advantages, taking a total of 41 penalty minutes to Prince George’s 17. Medicine Hat did not score on any of their four man advantages.
Medicine Hat entered the game with a young lineup, missing defencemen Josh Van Mulligen, Matt Paranych and Niilopekka Muhoneon, all out week to week with upper body injuries. They were also without defenceman Bryce Pickford who served the last game of his three-game suspension and forward Ryder Ritchie, still out after taking a skate to the face on Oct. 9.
Prince George opened the scoring 11:10 into the opening frame.
On a power play, forward Matteo Danis finished off a one-timer for the opening score. The Cougars followed that up with a score 5:21 later, with Jett Lajoie scoring on the goal line, finding a small space between the corner of the net and goaltender Harrison Meneghin.
Medicine Hat opened the scoring in the second period.
On a rush, Mat Ward sent the puck to Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll and the 15-year-old scored with a nifty deke in tight to make it a 2-1 game 4:16 into the frame. Prince George answered back with a pair of power play goals in the frame.
Borya Valis had the puck at the point for the Cougars and skated in to fire a wrist shot at the top of the circles. He scored to make it a 3-1 lead at the 9:43 mark.
With approximately 13 seconds left in the period, forward Terik Parascak scored on a power play breakaway for the 4-1 Prince George lead. The play clock was not running when the breakaway began but started midway through, before the score.
The Tigers outshot the Cougars 29-21 after 40 minutes, the third period was all Prince George as they tallied four goals for the 8-1 final.
Hunter Laing scored 8:24 into the frame on a clearing attempt from Meneghin that was trapped at the wall by Parascak. He sent the puck from the point to Laing at the crease for the tip-in. Prince George chased Meneghin with a goal at 10:30, scoring on the rush was Kayden Lemire, notching his first in the WHL. Meneghin finished his ninth with 19 saves. Ethan McCallum took over and the 18-year-old made four saves on six shots.
Riley Heidt scored on a shorthanded breakaway with 7:37 left in the game and Evan Groening rounded out the scoring with a wrist shot from the wall for the 8-1 final. Prince George net minder Joshua Ravensbergen made 33 saves for the win, Medicine Hat outshot the Cougars 34-31.
The Tigers (3-4) are on the road Friday, facing the Moose Jaw Warriors.
