Cats Complete the Comeback!

The Prince George Cougars continue to find a way to win.

Saturday night in Spokane the Prince George Cougars erased a 3-0 third period defecit and defeated the Spokane Chiefs 4-3 in a shootout. Cody Carlson had the game tying goal on a third period power play and added the shootout winner to give the Cougars their third straight victory.

The Spokane Chiefs led 1-0 after one period of play. Jason Fram scored the ‘Teddy Bear’ goal for Spokane at 13:06 of the first. Fram fired a point-shot through traffic and the puck found it’s way through Drew Owsley.

Following a lengthy delay the period continued with neither team able to capitalize. The Prince George Cougars had their chances, but they missed a couple of nets, and Mac Engel stood tall and made some key stops for Spokane.

The second period belonged to Spokane. They held the Prince George Cougars just four shots on goal and added two more of their own. The first one came from Anthony Bardaro, who scored at 15:10 off a turnover in the defensive zone. Spokane added to the lead 1:13 later when Steven Kuhn deflected home a Tyler King point shot. The shots on goal were 19-9 after forty minutes of play.

Early in the third period the Prince George Cougars found some life. Alex Forsberg took a Dan Gibb pass and fired a shot past Mac Engel from the slot to give the Cougars their first goal of the game.

The Cats inched closer at 14:01 of the third when Jordan Tkatch banged home a Chase Witala rebound for his eighth of the season. The play started with Greg Fraser taking the puck wide on Chiefs defenceman Tyler King who lost his footing. Fraser found Witala who’s shot was stopped, but Tkatch put the rebound home.

Moments later the Spokane Chiefs were penalized four-minutes when Reid Gow high-sticked Troy Bourke. Bourke and the Cougars would make him pay. Bourke assisted on Cody Carlson’s power play equalizer, and the Prince George Cougars had stormed all the way back from a three-goal deficit.

The Cougars had another power play chance in overtime, but were unable to score. The closest the Cougars would come was during the final seconds of overtime when Spencer Asuchak hit the cross-bar on a shot from the left-wing.

65 minutes solved nothing and the Cougars headed to a shootout for a fourth time on the season.

Blake Gal gave Spokane an early shootout lead when he squeaked one past Drew Owsley. The Cougars quickly countered with a goal from Alex Forsberg and tied it up. Drew Owsley stopped the next attempts from Anthony Bardardo, Dominick Uher and Mitch Holmberg .

Troy Bourke and Chase Witala both came close but could not beat Mac Engel. Cody Carlson changed that on the Cougars fourth attempt of the shootout.

The Prince George Cougars won their third straight game, and sixth in their last eight. They finished the game one-for-five on the power play and killed off both penalties that they took against the Chiefs.

The Cougars record now sits at 12:19-0-2 and the Cougars remain in eighth place in the WHL’s Western Conference.

Up next for the Cougars – Two games at home against the Vancouver Giants on December 16th and 17th.