The Prince George Cougars found themselves down late, but found a way to pull out a 4-3 overtime win in Kamloops.
The Cougars finished up their weekend road trip in front of 4,693 fans at the Sandman Centre last night. (Saturday)
Hudson Thornton opened the scoring for the Cougars on the powerplay late in the first, with assists coming from Ethan Samson and Riley Heidt.
In the second period, Kamloops Captain and Dallas Stars prospect Logan Stankoven was in the right place at the right time, putting a rebound behind Ty Young to tie the game at one.
Thornton scored another on the powerplay, to put the Cougars up 2-1.
Stankoven added two more goals to complete the hat trick, one of which came with 1:48 left in the third period to give the Blazers a 3-2 lead.
STANK WITH THE BANK!🎩🎩🎩@blazerhockey | @DallasStars pic.twitter.com/LaNVYNh99w
— The WHL (@TheWHL) October 23, 2022
However the Cougars would not go down so easily.
With the extra attacker on the ice, the Cougars peppered Kamloops goaltender Michael Scnattinger with shots.
A rebound eventually came to Chase Wheatcroft, who made no mistake in burying the puck to tie the game with 41 seconds to go.
Koehn Ziemmer was the overtime hero, putting the puck past Schnattinger’s glove to give the Cougars the 4-3 win.
Ziems called game 🔥 pic.twitter.com/N0SnIAaXD3
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) October 23, 2022
“I loved the resiliency and I loved our attitude after that goal was scored (Stankoven’s third) while they’re picking up the hats, ‘we’re going to get this guys, we’re going to do it,’ that was the talk that we had on the bench,” said Cougars Associate Coach Josh Dixon on the 94.3 The Goat Post-game show.
“For the players that we’re on the ice, they went out there and made that happen and that shows how far our group has come in terms of resiliency and mental toughness.”
Young was incredible in net for the Cougars, stopping 45 of 48 Kamloops shots.
“That was [Young’s] best game of the year, and he plays really well in this building,” said Dixon.
“To go in there and battle, and make some of the big saves he made, it was outstanding for him, outstanding for our team.”
The full box score can be found here.
With the win, the Cougars improve to 5-5-0-0, and the Blazers fall to 5-2-1-1.
It was also the first back-to-back wins for the Cougars this season.
The Cougars will return home to the CN Centre for a weekend double-header with the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday and Saturday.