It was just about a done deal.
With less than three minutes left Friday night in Seattle, the visiting Prince George Cougars trailed the Seattle
Thunderbirds 4-2.
But thanks to the scoring magic of veteran forwards Klarc Wilson and Troy Bourke, less than two minutes apart, 60 minutes of regulation time and five minutes of OT was not enough. It took a shootout to settle it.
Jordan Tkatch ended it in Round 6, scoring on T-birds goalie Danny Mumaugh to give the Cougars a 5-4 win over Seattle.
Wilson made it a one-goal game with 2:46 left, banging in the rebound of Raymond Grewal's point shot, and Bourke tied it with 56 seconds left in regulation time, accepting an Alex Forsberg pass from behind the net and rifling it past Mumaugh, stunning the partisan crowd of 3,533 at ShoWare Centre in Kent, Wash.
Troy Bourke also scored in the shootout for the Cougars, after Branden Troock had beaten Ty Edmonds in the Cougars net.
The win improved the Cougars' record to 6-6-0-1, while Seattle dropped to 8-3-0-1.
Riley Sheen broke a 2-2 deadlock late in the second period with a slick deke on Cougars defenceman Joe Carvalho to give the T-birds at 3-2 at the intermission. Sheen's goal came six minutes after Chase Witala had tied it up for the Cats on a power play.
The Cougars' comeback hopes were dealt a series blow late in the third period when defenceman Marc NcNulty took a delay of game penalty for
shooting the puck over the glass.
Twelve seconds into the Seattle power play, Ethan Bear cruised in from the point and scored his first career WHL goal at 16:50 of the third period. But the Cougars somehow found a way to take it to the limit.
Sixteen-year-old rookie Jansen Harkins opened the scoring with his third of the season, getting to his own rebound to beat Mumaugh.
Roberts Lipsbergs, with his team-leading ninth of the season on the power play, replied for Seattle before the period ended. Erik Benoit had given Seattle a 2-1 lead early in the second.
Ty Edmonds made 40 stops in the Cougar nets. Mumaugh was a lot busier guarding the Seattle cage, facing 51 shots. The Cougars move on to Kelowna, where they play the Rockets tonight to wrap up their four-game roadtrip.
