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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Liam Stewart’s late goal gives Spokane Chiefs 3-2 win over Prince George Cougars

The Spokane Chiefs may remember this as their dramatic turnaround week.

Six days after posting their fifth consecutive loss with perhaps their worst effort of the season, a 4-1 home loss to Seattle, the Chiefs are on the right track again.

Liam Stewart’s goal with 6 minutes, 4 seconds left Saturday gave the Chiefs a 3-2 win over the Prince George Cougars before a packed Arena crowd of 8,038 on Teddy Bear Toss night. The other time the teams met this season, Oct. 4 at the Arena, the Cougars manhandled Spokane 6-2.

The victory came one night after Spokane ended a 16-game losing streak to Portland by scoring three times in the third period for a 4-3 road victory.

“We played a great game in Portland and came back in the third there,” said the 20-year-old Stewart, who notched his 11th goal of the season and second winner. “Today, we got back at 4:30 (a.m.) and had some bus legs under us, but that’s no excuse. We started out slow, but I think we definitely carried some things over from the Portland game into the second and third periods here.”

“Our team came out of that game last night really invested,” Chiefs coach Don Nachbaur said. “We really worked hard (Friday). … I liked our effort in both games. We were really tired and it took some mental toughness. I thought our guys did the right things to win the hockey game tonight.”

The Chiefs (16-12-3-0, 35 points) moved into a tie with the Tri-City Americans for third place in the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division. Prince George (17-16-0-0, 34) saw the end to a four-game winning streak in which it outscored rivals 17-10.

The Chiefs were clearly the aggressor in the third period, outshooting PG 16-7 after managing just 15 shots through the first two periods. Before Stewart’s tipped-in winner, Spokane attacked Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds with several shots.

“I’m surprised my goal went in, compared to all the other chances we had,” Stewart said. “It was a good little frenzy we had … and luckily my goal just tipped in. It was a good funnel by (Keanu Yamamoto) and all of the guys were going hard and wanted to score.”

Before Stewart’s goal, Spokane had gone silent for more than 39 minutes after assuming a 2-0 first-period lead.

“I thought we traded chances too many times in the first two periods,” Nachbaur said. “That’s why they got back in the game. In the third, we had the puck in the areas that we wanted it. Our structure was there and our structure got us the game-winning goal.”

Chiefs left wing Hudson Elynuik energized the crowd at 9:16 of the first with his first goal of the season, the Teddy Bear Toss goal that sent more than 6,000 stuffed animals to the Arena ice for charity.

Spokane’s Adam Helewka scored his team-high 16th goal at 14:22 of the first, taking a perfect pass out front from Markson Bechtold.

The Cougars rallied on defenseman Marc McNulty’s fifth and sixth goals of the season. The first, late in the first period, came after Joseph Carvalho’s slap shot deflected off McNulty and past Chiefs goalie Garret Hughson.

Hughson stopped 23 shots after turning aside 29 against Portland on Friday. He improved to 11-8-3-0.