Last shot wins.
From start to finish that’s how it went down when the Prince George Cougars and Kamloops Blazers clashed on a snowy Saturday evening in Kamloops.
Cougars 16-year-old rookie winger Ethan Browne had that last shot on his stick and made it count, going wide with a forehand deke around Kamloops Blazers goalie Max Palaga for the winner in a wild 7-6 shootout victory.
Vladislav Mikhalchuk also scored in the shootout and had two goals in regulation time, his 11th and 12th of the season, as the Cougars ended a four-game losing streak.
“The bottom line is, with a young group you’ve got to find ways to win and it wasn’t pretty through the whole game with two young hockey teams,” said Cougars associate coach Steve O’Rourke.
“A lot of mistakes and a lot of little details that weren’t there from either hockey club, but we found a way to hang in there. There must have been three or four posts in the third period that they hit, but we’ll take it and get on the road here tonight. It wasn’t a masterpiece by any means.”
The win leaves the Cougars (20-30-4-4) still far removed from a playoff spot. The Blazers (26-28-1-4) had to settle for a single point and the shootout loss left them nine points behind Seattle for the second Western Conference wild-card spot.
The Cougars have lost five of the eight games against Kamloops but now have won three of four in Kamloops. Each team will host the other once more to complete the 10-game regular-season series.
Saturday’s game began ominously for the Cougars when Blazers captain Nick Chyzowski scored on a wraparound just 15 seconds in. The Blazers continued to pour it on and hit two goalposts and outshot the Cougars 8-0, but the Cats came back. Mikhalchuk’s long wrister beat starting goalie Dylan Ferguson with the teams skating 4-on-4 and Josh Maser scored his first of two goals to give the Cougars their first lead. But Kamloops got to a couple rebounds and goals from Justin Sigrist (who scored the Blazers’ only goal in the shootout) and Jackson Sheppard (on a power play) put them ahead 3-2 after one period.
The Cougars were at their best in the second period, outscoring the Blazers 4-2. Maser got them started when he jammed in a loose puck in the crease to tie it 3-3.
The Cougars went on a five-minute power play when Nolan Kneen stuck out his knee as he collided with Josh Curtis. The Cougars didn’t get a full five minutes with the man advantage when Brogan O’Brien was banished for giving Ferguson a snow shower, but the Cougars got another 4-on-4 goal from Curtis to gain the lead again. That lasted just 28 seconds when Jermaine Loewen scored his fourth goal in three games against the Cougars, a perfect tip-in while standing on Tavin Grant’s doorstep.
Kamloops pointman Joe Gatenby spun off his check at the blueline to keep the puck in the Cougars’ end while on the power play and his long shot was tipped by Quinn Benjafield for a 5-4 Blazers’ lead. But with 17:49 left in the second, Mikhalchuk picked the short side from a sharp angle to chase Ferguson from the game after he’d allowed five goals on 24 shots.
“We were fortunate, Ferguson’s a top-end goaltender and he had a tough night,” said O’Rourke. “A couple (goals) you know he wanted back by the way he talked on the ice. We were fortunate their No. 1 didn’t play great tonight.
“Tavin (Grant) fought it all night but at the end of the day he stands with the victory.”
The Cougars jumped ahead 6-5 on the power play with seven seconds left in the second period. Jared Bethune’s shot from the slot ticked off the skate of the Blazers’ Brady Reagan, the first shot Palaga faced.
But just two minutes into the third period, Tyler Ludwar got his stick on a point shot from Steve Strange, the first WHL career goal for Ludwar and for the seventh time in the game it was tied. That was the only goal of a period dominated by the Blazers, who outshot the Cougars 19-4 in the third period and 45-31 in the game. Not included in the Blazers’ shot total were the six goalposts and one crossbar they hit. Gatenby nailed both posts with one shot on a 2-on-1 chance about a minute into overtime.
The Cougars will play Wednesday in Kelowna, Friday in Spokane and Saturday in Tri-Cities.
