It was a classic shootout at the OK Corral and the Prince George Cougars were the last guys standing.
Ilijah Colina had one more bullet left and he used it with just 18.3 seconds left to pull off an improbable victory for the Cougars over the visiting Kelowna Rockets.
Colina got free in front of the net and whacked home a backdoor pass from Josh Curtis for the winner in a wild 7-6 victory which capped off a two-game sweep of the B.C. Division-leading Rockets.
But this one went down to the final three seconds before the Cougars and a CN Centre crowd of 2,545 could start to breathe normally again. The Rockets, playing shorthanded in the dying seconds, came within a whisker of tying it when Carsen Twarynski nailed the goalpost with three ticks left.
The second hardworking win in consecutive nights improved the Cougars' fifth-place B.C. Division record to 22-33-4-4, while the Rockets dropped to 38-20-4-2.
The Cats gained their first lead with just 4:15 left on the clock.
Jackson Leppard let go a shot that went off Gordie Ballhorn's stick and appeared to go in off the back of Brogan O'Brien as it fluttered over the shoulder of goalie James Porter, giving the Cougars their first lead of the night. But nothing was safe the way this game panned out and less than a minute later Rockets captain Cal Foote made it a 6-6 game with a close-range shot.
Prince George rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie it and the teams traded five goals in the last eight minutes of the game. Aaron Boyd and O'Brien scored in the second period and Jared Bethune knotted the score 4-4 with six minutes gone in the third period, the 11th point for Bethune in the seven-game season series against the Rockets.
The Rockets had a golden chance to retake the lead midway through the third period with Joel Lakusta off for tripping but Taylor Gauthier came up with a show-stopping save, coming out to challenge Erik Gardiner. However, Gardiner came back right after the penalty expired and used Ryan Schoettler as a screen as he unleashed a wrister that sailed through the legs of Gauthier. It was Gardiner's sixth goal of the season and fifth against the Cougars.
But just 16 seconds later, with 8:04 left in the third, the Cats came back. Austin Crossley's blast from just inside the blueline made it a 5-5 game.
The Cougars held the Rockets to just one goal Tuesday, winning 4-1 to end a nine-game losing streak against Kelowna which dated back to October 2016. So it somewhat predictable the visitors and their fifth-ranked offence would respond the way they did to start the rematch.
Cole Lind lit that fuse, scoring three first-period goals to stake the Rockets to an early 3-0 lead. Lind's first of the night was a shot through a screen as he circled out of the corner 5:40 into the game. His second goal came from a sharp angle 90 seconds later when he picked the short side.
Lind completed the natural hat trick 14:59 into the first period with a shot from the slot. He got the rebound of a point shot from Foote, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick back from a one-game suspension. That came with six seconds left in a roughing penalty handed to Cougars defenceman Crossley.
The Cougars' offence sparked to life late in the period. Ethan Browne set up linemate Colina with a pass in the crease, the ninth goal of the season for the former Portland Winterhawk.
The Rockets restored the three-goal lead six minutes into the second period and Lind had a hand it, finding Conner Bruggen-Cate with a cross-ice pass. Bruggen-Cate caught Gauthier not hugging his post and put the puck in over his shoulder.
But the Cougars found a way to make a game of it. Boyd let go a sharp-angle shot from the right side that rippled the net behind James Porter to make it a 4-2 game 1:47 into the second and three minutes later O'Brien cut the lead to one, ripping a one-timer from the slot set up by a perfect pass out of the corner from Leppard.
The Cougars get back at it again on Friday when the Victoria Royals came to town for back-to-back games.
The Cats wrap up their six-game homestand next Tuesday and Wednesday against Portland.
