“We don’t quit, we just come back.”
Mark Lamb said it and that about sums up what his Prince George Cougars are all about these days.
That never-say-die attitude resulted in two late goals that pushed it into overtime and Riley Heidt’s winning shot 2:03 into OT gave the Cougars a 5-4 win over the visiting Spokane Chiefs.
They left the rink at CN Centre with another two points to add to their WHL Western Conference-leading total and remain one point ahead of the Portland Winterhawks.
Some of the fans in the Saturday night crowd of 3,960 started making their way to the exits after Chiefs forward Berkly Catton scored his second power-play goal of the game to give his team a 4-2 lead with just over three minutes left in regulation but the Cougars were far from done.
Cue the comeback.
First it was pointman Viliam Kmec finding the net behind Spokane goalie Cooper Michaluk with 1:03 left on the clock. Thirty-three seconds later, with the Cougars on the power play, Zac Funk took a back-door pass from Ondrej Becher and blasted in his WHL-leading 59th goal of the season.
In overtime, Funk joined Heidt on a 2-on-1 and Heidt elected to shoot and he beat Michaluk to the far side for his 33rd goal and 102nd point to trigger the celebration.
The Cougars have had several scintillating comebacks this season but none quite as dramatic as Saturday’s.
“That’s really exciting,” said Lamb, the Cougars head coach and general manager. “We got the power play there and we have a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net. Once the ball gets rolling downhill we’re a tough team to stop.”
Ty Young made 18 saves in the Cougar nets to improve his record to 19-11-0-2. The Cats fired 38 shots at Michaluk.
Carlin Dezainde and Matteo Danis also scored for the Cougars. Ty Cheveldayoff and Shea Van Olm were the other Chiefs goalscorers.
The Cougars lost to the Chiefs 5-4 in overtime on Friday.
They will host the Vancouver Giants in a two-game set this weekend at CN Centre.
