Thirty-three seconds.
That's all the overtime it took for Jansen Harkins to score on Seattle Thunderbirds goalie Taran Kozun to give the Prince George Cougars a 5-4 win Friday night in Seattle.
The win moved the Cougars (25-33-2-2) to within a point of the Vancouver Giants in the race for the third and final playoff spot in the WHL B.C. Division. Seattle dropped to 31-22-4-4.
The Cougars had no business being within striking distance of the T-birds after getting outshot 20-3 and outscored 3-1 in a penalty-filled opening period in which they played shorthanded five times.
The Cats opened the scoring on a power play when Josh Connolly collected his 14th of the season 13:01 into the first period. Shea Theodore tied it for Seattle less than a minute later and Cory Millette and Roberts Lipsbergs added power-play goals before the first period ended.
But undisciplined penalties came back to bite Seattle. With 2:06 gone in the second period, Evan Wardley of Seattle was handed three minor penalties and four seconds later T-bird Jerrett Smith shot the puck over the glass, leaving Seattle two men short. Cougars centre Zach Pochiro scored twice on 5-on-3 power play chances in the second period to tie the game 3-3.
That lasted until the 14:44 mark, when Luke Osterman put a rebound behind Ty Edmonds to give Seattle a 4-3 lead. Rookie forward Jordan Ross answered for the Cougars, beating Kozun for his first WHL goal, 17:57 into the second period.
Shots ended up 36-29 in the T-birds' favour.
The Cats got some help when Vancouver lost 4-0 to the Kelowna Rockets Friday in Vancouver, although fifth-place Kamloops beat Victoria 4-2 in Kamloops. The Giants (26-32-1-2) have 55 points, one point ahead of the Cougars and have 11 games remaining in the regular season, one more than Prince George. Kamloops (23-33-3-3) has 52 points, with 10 games left.
The Cougars move on to Everett, where they face the Silvertips tonight.
