Photo Courtesy of the Prince George Cougars & James Doyle Photography

For the second straight game, the Victoria Royals erased a 3-2 third period deficit to edge the Prince George Cougars 4-3.

Unlike Friday, the Royals did not need overtime to post the victory.

On Sunday afternoon before 5,815 fans on Vancouver Island, Matthew Phillips scored the winner on the power-play, his second goal of the game and 47th of the season with 6:52 left.

Igor Martynov tied the game five minutes earlier.

Aaron Boyd, Joel Lakusta, and Jackson Leppard tallied for the Cougars, who finished the season series against the Royals with three wins, three regulation losses and two overtime losses.

Both Brogan O’Brien and Jared Bethune notched two assists each for Prince George.

“Your real goal with the hockey team is to be very skillful and hard to play against. Right now we still have to build on the skill side, but we are very hard to play against,” said an encouraged Cougars Associate Head Coach Steve O’Rourke on 94.3 the GOAT‘s post-game show.

The Cats held the high-scoring Royals to just 17 shots over the final 40 minutes.

“We played in their zone more, we held on to pucks, and got pucks to the net better and we had really good back pressure,” added O”Rourke.

Tavin Grant made 30 saves as Prince George outshot Victoria 36-34.

Ex-Cariboo Cougar, Griffen Outhouse blocked 33 shots to earn the win in net.

Outhouse set the Royals franchise record for most wins in a single season with his 35th.

Victoria was two-for-two (2/2) on the power-play while PG went one-for-three (1/3).

The Royals are second in the BC Division with two games left, three points behind first-place Kelowna and five points ahead of third-place Vancouver.

The (23-37-5-4) Cougars visit Kelowna on Wednesday before concluding with a home-and-home against the Blazers; Friday in Kamloops and Saturday in Prince George.

The Rockets need one more win or a Victoria loss to secure top spot.

 

WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE:

BC DIVISION:

Kelowna, 69 games = 40-22-5-2 (87 points)
Victoria, 70 games = 39-25-4-2 (84 points)
Vancouver, 69 games = 35-25-6-3 (79 points)
Kamloops, 69 games = 29-35-1-4 (63 points)
Prince George, 69 games = 23-37-5-4 (55 points)

WESTERN CONFERENCE WILD CARD:

Tri-City, 68 games = 35-24-8-1 (79 points)
Seattle, 68 games = 32-26-8-2 (74 points)
Kamloops, 69 games = 29-35-1-4 (63 points)
Prince George, 69 games = 23-37-5-4 (55 points)

(Blazers and Cougars mathematically eliminated from playoff contention)

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