The Prince George Cougars are bound and determined to make the Western Conference playoff race as interesting as possible. Saturday night in Kennewick, WA the Cougars defeated the Tri-City Americans 3-2 in a shootout, earning their third straight win in the process.  Dallas Ehrhardt and Jari Erricson scored in regulation and Zach Pochiro and Colin Jacobs potted goals in the shootout. Mac Engel made 22 saves for his third straight victory.

Tri-City opened the scoring at 9:11 of the first period when Malte Stromwall, Jesse Mychan and Justin Feser combined on Feser’s 42^nd of the season. The goal came against the flow as the Cougars were outshooting Tri-City 6-0 at the time.

The Cougars responded well with some more offensive pressure and were eventually rewarded for their efforts with two goals in the span of 1:29.

First it was Dallas Ehrhardt who pounced on a rebound in the slot and blasted the puck past Troy Trombley for his sixth at 17:20. Jari Erricson and Marc McNulty drew the assists. Erricson then gave the Cougars the lead when he went hard to the net and banged home a puck that was caught up in some net-traffic in front of Trombley. Colin Jacobs and Jordan Tkatch both assisted on Erricson’s 13^th.

After one period it was 2-1 Cougars who outshot Tri-City 12-6.

Both goaltenders kept the game close with some timely saves in the second, and through the first 15 minutes the Cougars did a great job of keeping Tri-City’s chances limited.

That changed when Tri-City went to a four-on-three power play. Michael Plutnar skated the puck into the slot and fired his seventh of the season to tie the game at two, which is how the second period would end.

Early in the third the Cougars would get a chance to take the lead on their fourth power play, but were unable to beat Troy Trombley on a couple of quality chances.

Late in the third, with just over two minutes left, Tri-City got their chance on the power play, but the Cougars penalty-killers weathered the storm, and for a second straight night, 60 minutes was not enough.

Tri-City got another power play opportunity in the final minutes of overtime, but once again Mac Engel and the penalty killers did their part to keep the game tied. Once again, for a second straight night the Cougars were headed to a shootout.

Tri-City elected for the Prince George Cougars to shoot first and Zach Pochiro wasted no time in giving the Cougars the shootout lead. Pochiro skated in on Troy Trombley and beat him with a quick wrist shot to the blocker side.

Justin Feser’s attempt went wide of the goal, which gave the Cougars the lead after round one. Jake Mykitiuk and Connor Rankin were both denied on their respective chances, which put the game in the hands of Colin Jacobs. Jacobs skated slowly in on Trombley and beat him with a low shot to clinch the Cougars third straight victory.

Both teams finished the game with 24 shots. Prince George went zero-for-four on the power play while Tri-City went one-for-three.

Saturday’s win improves the Cougars record to 21-38-2-6, and they ended splitting their season series with Tri-City by going 2-2.

The win also keeps the Cougars within four points of the eighth placed Everett Silvertips with five games remaining in their regular season. The Cougars will look to inch a little closer to eighth on Sunday afternoon when they face the Vancouver Giants at the Pacific Coliseum.