Desperation is like a stinky cologne.
And the Regina Pats were wearing a lot more of it.
Down to 2-1 heading into the third period, a trio of unanswered goals from Keets Fawcett, Ruslan Karimov and Zach Moore pushed the Pats to a 4-2 victory over the Prince George Cougars in front of 2,941 fans at the Brandt Centre on Wednesday.
Fawcett’s second goal of the game at the 14:54 mark of the third period proved to be clincher, sniping a shot, top shelf past Cougars goaltender Alex Levshyn for a 3-2 lead.
KEETS FAWCETT SCORES THE GO-AHEAD GOAL 🚨🥶#ReginaPatsHockey | #REGvsPG pic.twitter.com/TaQDkVVaQk
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) February 26, 2026
After a timeout, PG pulled its import netminder in favour of the extra-attacker but came up empty.
Following a failed pinch at the Regina blueline, Zach Moore led a 2-on-1 rush zipping the puck into the yawning cage.
Prince George gave up the first goal for the sixth straight time as Fawcett opened the contest for Regina accepting a Zach Lansard pass for a 1-0 lead.
Special teams provided some early dividends later in the first period as Terik Parascak tapped home a sweet passing sequence from Carson Carels and Kooper Gizowski.
The Cougars lone lead of the game came at 11:26 of the middle frame as Koy Funk wired a slap shot past Regina netminder Marek Schlenker.
In a back and forth third period, Karimov evened the score at 2-2 pouncing on a Caden Brown feed.
KARIMOV 🤯 pic.twitter.com/0fTWvYKqLG
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) February 26, 2026
The Pats outshot PG 39-31 and went 0-for-5 on the power-play while the Cougars were 1-for-4.
Game stats presented by @FlamanFitness pic.twitter.com/SpZE1zgd9K
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) February 26, 2026
Hot shot 15-year-old Maddox Schultz ended the contest with a pair of assists for Regina who improved to 22-27-6-1 on the campaign.
Pats blueliner Reese Hamilton also posted a +3 rating in the victory.
On the flip side, Cougars overage forward Dawson Seitz was stapled to the bench by head coach Mark Lamb after taking two minor penalties in one sequence on Regina 15-year-old forward Liam Pue.
🧱🧱 Schlenker@SubExpresss #REGvsPG #BlueRunsDeep #ReginaPatsHockey pic.twitter.com/IedqrwRzTM
— Regina Pats (@WHLPats) February 26, 2026
For the second straight night, a Cougars milestone was reached. 20-year-old blueliner Bauer Dumanski played his 300th game with the franchise.
The Lockwood, Saskatchewan product is going out with a bang posting 33 points in 51 games (7 goals, 26 assists).
PG wasted a golden opportunity to gain ground on the Penticton Vees in the BC Division race. The Vees fell 5-3 to the Saskatoon Blades Wednesday night.
Prince George is 10 points behind Penticton and just one ahead of the (32-18-5-2) Kelowna Rockets.
The Rockets beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-1 on Wednesday.
The Cougars (35-21-2-0) play Saskatoon (30-23-4-2) on Friday at the Sasktel Centre before concluding the road trip Saturday against the Eastern Conference leading Prince Albert Raiders.
Puck drop is at 5pm Pacific Time.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
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