If you weren't among the 4,062 who packed into at CN Centre Saturday afternoon, too bad. You missed one of the most exciting games of the season.
With the eyes of the country focused on Prince George under the national TV glare of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada, the Prince George Cougars and Edmonton Oil Kings put on a display of hockey that highlighted the reasons we love our game -- beautiful goals, pinpoint passing, hard hits, slick skating, scintillating saves, and three lead changes -- which turned out one too many for the Cougars' liking.
The Cats thought they had the two points nailed down, leading 6-2 with only one period left and their biggest home crowd of the season spurring them to victory. But oh those Oil Kings, the battle-tested and successful WHL team that they are, scored four times in the third period and once more in the shootout for a 7-6 win.
So how did it happen? How did the Cougars rebound after losing 8-0 to the same Oil Kings and come within a Henrik Samuelsson shootout goal of beating them?
"Going up by four goals in the third period, you should finish those games out, it's definitely frustrating and we're not happy about this one," said Cougars captain Troy Bourke. "Playing in front of that crowd was fun. Each period you get psyched up when you have a big crowd cheering for you and I can't speak enough about how much that helps.
"I think the biggest thing is we were maybe too relaxed in the second intermission and thought we had it in the bag and a good team like Edmonton can score four on you in a hurry. It's definitely a lesson we'll build off for the rest of the season."
The wheels started falling even before Zach Pochiro took an ill-advised high-sticking penalty 1:37 into the third period. Having replaced starting goalie Tristan Jarry with former Cougar Tyler Santos to start the period, the Oil Kings stormed the enemy net with seven shots without any pushback. Curtis Lazar, the best player in an Edmonton uniform Saturday, put on a burst of speed and took the puck behind the net just as defenceman Cody Corbett came cruising in from the point to bang in his 14th of the season. Then, 38 seconds later, Riley Kiefer jammed the net and popped in a rebound. If that wasn't enough to inspire the comeback, Reid Petryk certainly did, potting his second goal of the game on a rebound at the 7:21 mark, with Cougars winger Brett Roulston serving a holding penalty. The tying goal came at 14:02, an unassisted effort from Edgars Kulda, who stole the puck off Marc McNulty along the boards and beat Ty Edmonds with a high shot.
Edmonds preserved the single point with a couple sharp saves in the dying minutes of regulation time. He then made two more key stops in OT and also got help from his good friend the goalpost (sorry Ashton Sautner). It all came down to Samuelsson, the only successful shootout shooter in three rounds. He waited for Edmonds to make the first move before snapping in a big-league shot to cinch it.
"The two games were almost polar opposites, the way it was going into the third period, to be able to come back and have that character win is huge for us," said Oil Kings captain Griffin Reinhart. "Between the periods we talked about how we've done this before against this team two times before. We always knew we had character but this really proved it to us and to be able to do that gives us a lot of confidence for the future. This is really special."
Friday's 8-0 drubbing was the Cougars' worst loss of the season and on Saturday they got off to the worst possible start, giving up the first goal just 18 seconds into the game. McNulty's clearing attempt off the boards was picked off by Petryk, who had an open lane and snapped a high shot into the net.
Jordan Tkatch made up for McNulty's blunder in a hurry. The Cougar centre stripped the puck from defenceman Aaron Irving, broke in alone and scored with a stick-side wrister. That got the fans into it and they didn't have to wait long to jump out of their seats again. Pochiro sprung Todd Fiddler on a 2-on-1 and the Cougars' top sniper buried it in the net., his first of three of goals in the game.
McNulty atoned for his own mistake, taking a lead pass in the high slot from Bourke and lifting a in a high backhander. Obviously frustrated, the Oil Kings' top skaters -- Reinhart, Henrik Samuelsson and Mitchell Moroz -- took a few undisciplined penalties and the Cougars cashed in with less than a minute left in the first period. Bourke made a perfect pass to Fiddler, parked at the side of the net and with one knee firmly planted Fiddler rifled a slap shot into the top corner for a 4-1 lead.
The Oil Kings blitzed the Cougars with seven unanswered shots to start the second period and one of them, a quick blast from Curtis Lazar right after a face-off, got through Edmonds. But the Cougars were unfazed and stretched their lead to 6-2 on goals from McNulty and Fiddler, both on 5-on-3 power plays.
"I thought we did a lot of good things today, compared to yesterday, there was really nowhere else to go," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "The guys answered the bell for the most part, but there were still some passengers. Edmonton's a good team with world-class players and a bunch of signed NHL guys and there are guys on our bench who have a lot of difficulty against their top-end guys.
"Do I think we should have won the game, absolutely. But we took a stupid selfish penalty and they score on it and got some traction right away. After that they got another power-play goal and before you know you're on your heels a bit. We're still a young group, especially on the back end and in goal, and we just didn't handle the adversity very well. The penalty was the turning point."
LOOSE PUCKS: Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal was sick in bed Saturday and missed the game while trying to recover in his hotel room... The Cougars host the Lethbridge Broncos on Tuesday, then head to Saskatchewan and Manitoba for their longest roadtrip of the season.
