Prince George takes one away from Spokane

Inexplicably, the Spokane Chiefs whiffed again.

Into town came the Prince George Cougars, losers of six straight. On the scoreboard, fifth-place Tri-City – hanging on to Spokane in the standings – was losing.

In short: The fattest of softballs was lobbed Spokane’s way to hit out of the park. Then, like Bugs Bunny in his famous Casey At The Bat cartoon, each period passed by like a slow-mo pitch and the Chiefs missed on all of them.

“One, two, three, yer out!”

Spokane fell to Prince George 2-1 in a Western Hockey League game before 4,310 on Wednesday night at the Arena.

It wasn’t an end-of-the-world loss, mind you, but one that hurt – a lot – for a Spokane team (20-27-8-2, 50 points) trying to ensure its place in the playoffs.

“We had to have those two points. It’s just really disappointing – us, the fans, everybody, a real disappointing loss,” said Spokane’s Derek Ryan, who had the lone goal. “Like (Spokane coach) Al (Conroy) said, ‘We weren’t prepared to play. We came out slow, never really got it going.’ After my goal, we still shut ‘er down, couldn’t get it going.”

The teams entered the final period with a scoreless tie. Both goaltenders were outstanding as neither team could capitalize on brief flurries of opportunity.

The Cougars changed that when Colin Patterson put in a rebound of a shot from the left point past Jim Watt, top-shelf, stick-side, at the 4-minute, 14-second mark of the third period.

The Chiefs finally showed a little life at that point.

Ryan, who worked hard the whole game, would get the Chiefs even at the 8:02 mark of the period with a beautiful play. After winning a face-off in the Cougars’ zone, he skated in from the right circle, drew Cougars goalie Scott Bowles to the right post, then went crossover with the puck and put it back-handed into the open net.

However, defenseman Dustin Bfuglien recorded the game-winning goal for Prince George at the 15:19 mark of the third period, beating Watt high, glove side, from the top of the right circle.

Cougars 2, Chiefs 1

First period– None. Second period– None. Third period– 1, PG Patterson 18 (Rogers, Drazenovic), 4:14; 2, Spo, Ryan 11 (Gladue, Engman), 8:02; 3, PG, Byfuglien 19, 15:19.

Power-play opportunities–Prince George 0 of 6; Spokane 0 of 4. Saves–Prince George, Bowles 15-10-13-38; Spokane, Watt 13-11-8–33. A–4,310.