Red-hot Nick McCarry helps Chiefs roll past Cougars

From staff reports

PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia – Acquired in a January trade, left winger Nick McCarry is playing his best hockey of the season for the Spokane Chiefs.

It isn’t a coincidence the Chiefs are playing their best hockey, too.

The left winger scored for the fourth consecutive game Saturday, registering two goals in a 3-1 victory over Prince George in a Western Hockey League game.

Spokane has won four of its past five games.

McCarry was acquired with a 2025 second-round pick when the Chiefs traded Luke Toporowski to Kamloops on Jan. 17. He had scored three goals in a Chiefs uniform before amassing five goals and an assist in Spokane’s past four contests.

Carter Streek scored at the 5:13 mark of the opening period to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead.

Moments after Prince George’s Caden Brown was penalized for checking to the head, Spokane’s Bear Hughes won a faceoff – one of 21 he won all night – in the Cougars’ zone. Graham Sward fired a pass to McCarry in space and gave him plenty of time to line up a shot and beat goaltender Ty Young to the glove side for a 2-0 lead with 4½ minutes left in the first period.

Koehn Ziemmer trimmed the Cougars’ deficit to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 3:38 in the second period.

McCarry beat Young again, this time from the right circle, and rocketed a shot into the roof of the net for a two-goal edge with 4:45 left in the period.

Mason Beaupit stopped 14 shots in goal for the Chiefs.

Young made 21 saves for the Cougars.