On night when it appeared Tyler Mrkonjic was about to write a Cinderella story for the Prince George Cougars, a Taylor by the name of Crunk, instead brought that happy ending to the Victoria Royals.
Crunk ended one of the most exciting games of the Cougars' season 11 rounds into a shootout with a glove-side snapshot that beat Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds to give the Royals a 4-3 victory Saturday and a split of their weekend series at CN Centre.
The outcome of the game was disappointing to most of the crowd of 5,404 who packed the place to watch a possible preview of a first-round playoff matchup between the Cougars and Royals. Not only that, they were drawn to the rink by the lure of winning biggest 50/50 payout in Cougars franchise history. That hadn't been decided by the time they left the rink, but that's another story.
Chaz Reddekopp, Brandon Magee, and Quesnel native Ryan Gagnon scored for Victoria in regulation time, while Mrkonjic, Tomas Andrlik and Chase Witala were the Cougar goalscorers.
Mrkonjic's goal, 17:27 into the second period, started the comeback and brought the Cougar fans out of their seats. Josh Connolly fed a perfect pass to a streaking Mrkonjic and he wired a slapshot that got through the legs of Coleman Vollrath.
Mrkonjic was the centre of attention around the rink before the game because Cougars ownership decided to donate proceeds from the night's massive 50/50 jackpot into the Shelly L. Mrkonjic ALS Research Fund, named after his mother, who died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 2006. (See other story on page 1).
For the just-turned 19-year-old Mrkonjic, a native of St. Albert, Alta., scoring his fifth goal of the season will no doubt stand out as one of the highlights of his WHL career. He would have liked to have ended the game when he took his turn in the sixth shootout round, but Vollrath got his pad in the way of Mrkonjic's shot.
"I definitely wanted to get that one for everyone here and the team and it was unfortunate I couldn't but we battled back," he said. "It meant a lot to score on a night like this, my mom probably helped me on that one. I just tried to hit the net and I was lucky it trickled 5-hole."
It was an unforgettable night for Frank Mrkonjic as well, seeing his son's contribution help the Cougars (28-33-2-3) gain another point in the standings to move four points ahead of the Kamloops Blazers for third spot in the WHL B.C. Division.
"It was very emotional, for him to score that goal, it seemed like it got the team going a little bit," said Frank Mrkonjic. "Everything this organization did for Tyler and all the people of Prince George who came to this game tonight was unbelievable."
Andrlik made it one-goal game early in the third period, intercepting a clearing attempt at the blueline and lifting a long hard wrist shot high over Vollrath for his first goal since joining the Cougars in January in a trade from Prince Albert.
With three minutes left, the Cats tied it up on a power play. Zach Pochiro accepted a pass from Jansen Harkins, cut to the middle and shot. Vollrath made the save but Witala grabbed the rebound and with a flick of his wrist scored his team-leading 33rd of the season. With that assist, Harkins tied Quinn Hancock's team record of 58 assists set in 1997-98.
Witala thought he had the game won 54 seconds into overtime when he put the puck in but it was ruled one of the Cougars made incidental contact with Vollrath on the play. The Cats had two power-play chances in OT but couldn't score and Victoria defenceman Joe Hicketts was a big part of the reason why.
Hicketts made three of his 11 shot blocks in overtime with Travis Brown sitting out the first penalty. The Royals then got caught with too many men with 1:11 left but the Cougars were unable to generate a shot, leading to the shootout.
"It was a hard game from start to finish and we knew coming up here they were going to play hard for six periods - they're fighting for their playoff lives," said Hicketts. "There was a lot of energy tonight with the game almost a sellout, which was exciting for us as well. We don't like giving up those third-period leads but it showed a lot of character killing those two penalties in overtime and then the marathon shootout."
Hicketts, an 18-year-old from Kamloops who helped Canada win gold at the world junior tournament, lost three teeth in practice Thursday when a teammate's shot he was trying to block deflected off his own stick. But that didn't make him shy away from the puck in the two games.
"We're at the part of the season where it's crunch time and you're going to have to sacrifice your body to win," said Hicketts.
After Mrkonjic had his shootout shot stopped by Vollrath's leg, Cal Babych, the Cougars' 11th shooter, rang the goalpost with his shootout attempt and that set the stage for Crunk, who got the Royals off the hook after blowing a 3-0 lead.
The Cougars looked tentative in the early going and seemed a step behind the Royals, missing with their passes on offence and losing the puck possession battles on defence and it eventually caught up with them.
Jansen Harkins and Chase Witala both had the puck on their sticks on the side boards with chances to clear it and Jack Walker stole it and shoveled it to Tyler Soy behind the net, who saw Reddekopp breaking in from the point and fed him a perfect pass for an easy goal 11 minutes into the game.
That hole they were in would have been much deeper for the Cougars if not for goalie Ty Edmonds. He flashed his trapper to take away a goal from Walker and was there to absorb the rebound from Greg Chase eight minutes in, then had all the angles covered to rob Austin Carroll at point-blank range near the end of the first period.
The Cougars settled down after that and started trading chances with the Royals. Chase and Carroll both hit the goalpost dead on, as did Harkins, before Victoria's Cougar-killer Magee found the net behind Edmonds. Magee carried the puck through the slot and dished it to Alex Forsberg, who banked a return pass off Magee's skate and into the net. It was Magee's 17th goal and 34th point in 36 career games against the Cougars.
Gagnon's goal, his first of the season, made it a 3-0 game and it came with the teams playing 4-on-4. Gagnon took a lead pass from Magee and fanned on his forehand shot but got the rebound and spun a high backhander over the glove of Edmonds.
The Cougars, who overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Victoria 4-3 on Friday, are now two points ahead of Tri-City for seventh place in the Western Conference. They travel to Kamloops to play the Blazers Wednesday night. Four of the Cougars six remaining games are against Kamloops.
"It was a good weekend for us," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "You're living dangerously when you're down after 40 and we did that both nights, but the way they battled back and composed themselves and competed in the third period of both games is a good sign.
"If it turns out that this is a playoff matchup down the road, hopefully the 5,500 (fans) will return and we'll have a good series."
