The Prince George Cougars had the Kamloops Blazers on the ropes Saturday night in Kamloops, seemingly headed down for the count, but in the late rounds could not put them away.
The Cougars took a stinger on the chops from Deven Sideroff, a Blazers' right winger, who tied the game with 52 seconds left in regulation time, but the real gut-cruncher came 59 seconds into the 3-on-3 overtime session.
Colin Shirley broke in on a 2-on-1 chance after being fed a pass off the side boards from Ondrej Vala and rifled in his second of the game, a wrist shot that caught the inside edge of the goalpost in behind Ty Edmonds for a 5-4 Blazers' victory.
The Blazers rallied from a 4-2 deficit with two goals in the third period. Nic Holowko converted on a goalmouth feed from Luc Smith to bring Kamloops within a goal, 5:22 into the third.
The Cougars stormed out to a 3-1 lead before the game was eight minutes old. Jesse Gabrielle, in his first game back from a three-game suspension, got them started 3:20 in on a Cougars' power play, set up at the side of the net for his 22nd of the season by Nikita Popugaev. About a minute later, Jansen Harkins potted his 14th goal with a shot from the left circle after Colby McAuley dug the puck off the side boards.
At 6:22, Lane Bauer scored his first goal for the Blazers in seven games since being acquired in a trade from the Edmonton Oil Kings. The power-play goal was Bauer's 26th this season and he also had two assists.
Then Cougars defencemen Brendan Guhle joined the rush and accepted a lead pass from Gabrielle, using his backhand to slide the puck on the ice past goalie Connor Ingram. That came at 7:26. Shirley scored his first of the game on another Kamloops power play at 8:52, jamming the net to get to a puck which dropped just outside the goal line after a shot from Sideroff.
Guhle capped the Cougars' scoring 13:18 into the first period, ripping a shot from long range on a pass from Gabrielle.
Ingram made 27 saves in the Blazers nets while his team outshot the Cougars 40-31.
The Blazers finished 2-for-4 on the power play while the Cougars ended up 1-for-3.
The win for the Blazers (29-16-1-2) was the first in three tries against the Cougars (33-13-3-0), who used their overtime point to maintain their first-overall WHL standing. The Cougars, who play Monday night in Vancouver, are eight points ahead of the second-place Blazers in the B.C. Division standings.
Saturday's game was the fourth in five nights for the Cougars and marked the beginning of a five game road trip. The Cougars will play Friday in Red Deer then head to Edmonton for games Saturday and Sunday.
