The Prince George Cougars are getting hot at just the right time.
One look at the WHL standings is all it takes to confirm the Cats are reaping the rewards.
They beat the Wenatchee Wild 4-3 Friday for their sixth straight victory to move to within one point of the BC Division-leading Victoria Royals.
The Spokane Chiefs did the Cougars a huge favour, bombing the Royals 9-2 Friday in Victoria, allowing the Cats to close in. Victoria (32-16-3-6) holds a game in hand over Prince George (37-19-4-2).
Terik Parascak, Aiden Foster, Viliam Kmec and Borya Valis, with an empty-netter, took care of the scoring for the Cougars.
Lukas McCloskey had two goals and Shaun Rios also scored for the Wild, who cashed in a 5-on-3 power play with two of their goals in the final 20 seconds of the game.
The teams traded goals in the first period. Koehn Ziemmer fed Parascak from behind the net for the opening strike at 3:41. McCloskey got the Wild back on even terms at mid-period.
Foster’s goal midway the second period came unassisted on a breakaway.
Kmec’s power-play goal late in the period was his 16th of the season. The 20-year-old now has goals in six of the past eight games.
Valis’s empty-net goal, his 31st of the season, came 18:03 into the third period with Bredan Gee on the bench for the extra skater, and as it turned out that was the gamewinner.
Josh Ravensbergen made 26 saves in goal for Prince George and was picked as the game’s first star. the Cougars outshot Wenatchee 32-29.
The Cats were coming off a 4-3 win Wednesday in Wenatchee and they’re not done with the Wild yet. The teams will meet next weekend at CN Centre in a Friday-Saturday doubleheader.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars’ six-game road trip resumes Saturday (6:05 p.m.) in Everett against the league-leading Silvertips. The Cats will also stop in Langley to play the Vancouver Giants Sunday afternoon (4 p.m.) … The Cougars were without winger Evan Groening who was suspended for four games after being assessed an elbowing major and game misconduct for his hit in Wild defenceman Josh Fluker near the end of Wednesday’s game in Wenatchee. Fluker was injured and did not play Friday ... Van Eger took Groening’s place in the lineup and the 19-year-old played his 100th WHL game.
