Troy Bourke had three assists as the Prince George Cougars fought to a gritty 4-3 overtime victory against the Spokane Chiefs on Saturday to end a seven-game losing skid.
The 17 year old picked up his third point on Cougars' defenceman Cody Carlson's ninth goal of the Western Hockey League season, which came on only 18 seconds into the extra frame in front of 1,822 fans at CN Centre.
"Reid [Jackson] gave it to me with a nice pass and I knew that Cody was opening up for a one-timer so I tried to freeze the goalie a little bit and slide the puck over," said Bourke. "Cody had an unbelievable shot and put it right in a perfect spot. He did most of the work there."
It was the Cougars (20-43-0-2) third power-play goal of the night as the club went an uncharacteristic 3-for-5 with the man-advantage. Before the game the Cougars' power play was firing at a league low 11 per cent.
"It was just doing a better job executing," said Cougars' head coach Dean Clark. "We won some loose puck battles. When Chase Witala scores it was just Bourke-y out muscles a guy for the puck and it ends up a two on one. I think we were just better at doing that."
With the three helpers Bourke now has 48 points to lead the Cougars.
"He's been our best player - forward player I mean," said Clark. "Drew Owsley's been good, but Bourkey's been our best player for about a month now. He's picked up his game and is doing everything that he can to have success."
The Cats fought back from two deficits after the Chiefs (35-22-5-3) opened the scoring in the first period when Mitch Holmberg beat Prince George goaltender Drew Owsley during a two-man advantage. The Cougars tied it at 1-1 before the end of the first period when Bourke set up Caleb Belter for his sixth goal of the season during a power play of their own.
The middle frame hasn't been kind to the Cougars lately and it appeared the trend would continue when Chiefs' leading goal scorer Dominik Uher restored the visitors' lead only 51 seconds into the period. But the Cats stayed patient and clawed back when Linden Springer picked up his own rebound in front of Spokane goalie Eric Williams to tie the game up at 2-2.
Prince George took their first lead when Bourke set up Witala for his seventh goal of the season on a power play.
The Chiefs tied the game at 3-3 with about eight minutes to play in the middle frame on Corbin Baldwin's sixth of the year.
The key moment in the final period happened with 15 seconds left when the Chiefs were caught with too many men on the ice, giving the Cougars an opportunity to start the overtime on a power play.
"I thought we were horrible," said Chiefs' head coach Don Nachbaur. "It was a disappointing effort tonight, whether we underestimated Prince George hats off to them they gave it a full effort."
With the win the Cougars took three of four games with the Chiefs this season, including a shootout win in Spokane.
The win allowed the Cougars to keep pace with the eighth-place Everett Silvertips (19-37-1-8), who pulled off a 4-1 upset over the Tri-City Americans (45-17-1-3) to remain five points ahead of the 10th place Cats. Meanwhile, the Chiefs moved two points ahead of the Vancouver Giants (36-25-1-3) for fourth place because the Giants' lost 5-2 to the Victoria Royals.
Prince George concludes its eight-game home stand Tuesday and Wednesday when the Seattle Thunderbirds (21-41-1-1) visit. The T-birds are two points up on the Cougars in the Western Conference standings.
"I'm glad we won the way we did tonight because it should give us some confidence," said Clark. "Certainly we have to follow this up and get on a little bit of a roll. We'll probably need some help, but this is a start."
Cat scratches: Daulton Siwak was added to the Cougars' injury list after suffering a sprained ankle in Friday's game. Belter was involved in a nasty collision with a Chiefs' player with 15 seconds left in the third period with a left-leg injury. "I think he's fine," said Clark after the game. "He's walking around now. There was a little bit of initial pain in his knee but it was from the contact and there wasn't any structural damage."
WHL summary:
Spokane Chiefs 3 Prince George Cougars 4 OT
First period:
1. Spokane Mitch Holmberg 26 (Kichton, Gal) 5:45 pp
2. Prince George Caleb Belter 6 (Bourke, Carlson) 12:06 pp
Penalties: Witala PG (high sticking) 4:52; Carlson PG (high sticking) 5:23; Baldwin SPK (boarding) 11:22; Vandane SPK (kneeing) 12:48,
Second period:
3. Spokane Dominik Uher 26 (Kalus, Fiddler) :51
4. Prince George Linden Springer 2 (Mykitiuk) 6:55
5. Prince George Chase Witala 7 (Bourke, Jackson) 9:33 pp
6. Spokane Corbin Baldwin 6 (Kichton, Uher) 12:28
Penalties: Uher SPK (checking from behind) 8:05; Fontaine PG (boarding) 16:35.
Third period:
No scoring.
Penalties: Mykitiuk PG (interference) 2:28; Chartier SPK (holding) 7:53; Bourke PG (holding) 12:03; Bench minor SPK (too many men, served by Mitch Holmberg) 19:44.
Overtime:
7. Prince George Cody Carlson 9 (Bourke, Jackson) :18 pp
Penalties: None.
Shots:
Spokane 14 17 9 1 37
Prince George 10 11 6 0 28
Goaltenders: Spokane Eric Williams (L 14-20-4); Prince George Drew Owsley (W 19-35-0-1)
Power plays: Spokane 1/5 Prince George 3/5
Referees: Brett Montsion, Steve Papp; Adam Hyatt, Chris Sweeting
Attendance: 1,822
