For a fourth consecutive Friday night, the Prince George Cougars needed a shootout to determine the winner of their game, and anybody in attendance during the Cougars-Rockets game on Friday, November 1^st won’t soon forget it. The Prince George Cougars erased a 6-2 deficit, forced overtime, had a goal disallowed in overtime before ultimately losing 7-6 in a shootout to the B.C. Division leading Kelowna Rockets. To say this one was wild would be a drastic understatement.

Kelowna led the game 3-0 by the 4:31 mark of the first period. Tyson Baillie scored just 37 seconds into the game, and Myles Bell followed with two quick ones at 4:12 and 4:31 to give Kelowna the early edge. Ty Edmonds started in goal for the Cougars but was pulled after allowing three goals on six shots.

Troy Bourke responded for PG with an unassisted breakaway goal at the 5:37 mark, but Kelowna made it 4-1 a few minutes later when Tyson Baillie scored on the power play.

Zach Pochiro grabbed the final goal of the first period at 12:54 making it a 4-2 score after 20 minutes.

Early in the second period the Cougars were given six consecutive power plays, including two five-on-three chances. The Cougars moved the puck around well, but Jordan Cooke made some key stops to keep Kelowna’s lead at 4-2.

After killing off five straight penalties, Kelowna went on the attack and scored two more quick ones 63 seconds apart in the late stages of the second. First it was Justin Kirkland who knocked home his own rebound 15:41, and then Kris Schmidli scored on a wrap-around. Schmidli’s goal was somewhat controversial given the fact that Cougars netminder Brett Zarowny appeared to be interfered with on the play.

Jordan Tkatch then scored a power play marker in the late stages of the second for the Cougars to make it a 6-3 game, which is how the second period would end.

At the time, the Tkatch goal didn’t seem to mean much, but it would prove to be vital to the Cougars third period comeback effort.

4:59 into the third, the Cougars made it 6-4 when Brad Morrison, Alex Forsberg and Zach Pochiro teamed up for a beautiful goal that was finished off by Pochiro. Pochiro lifted a shot over the left shoulder of Jordan Cooke, directly underneath the cross bar for his second of the game.

64 seconds later Chase Witala banged home his own rebound off a rush from the right wing to extend his point streak to eight games, and more importantly make the game a 6-5 score.

Kelowna then had two chances to put the game away on the power play, but Brett Zarowny stood tall making a series of big-time saves to keep the game within one for the Cougars.

Seconds after a Raymond Grewal penalty came to an end, the Cougars tied the game. Grewal did great work along the right wing wall to keep the play alive, and Troy Bourke then took the puck around the goal and lifted a backhander over Jordan Cooke and in for his second of the game and eighth of the season.

Late in the third Kelowna thought they had taken the lead back, but the referee ruled that Zach Franko had knocked the puck into the Cougars goal with a high-stick. The Cougars then responded with a flurry of late game chances, but Jordan Cooke kept the door shut and once again overtime would be required at the CN Centre.

17 seconds into the game the Cougars thought they had won it when Troy Bourke beat Jordan Cooke off a Zach Pochiro rebound. But the referee waived it off, ruling that there was incidental contact made on goaltender Jordan Cooke by Zach Pochiro.

The Cougars didn’t like the call because they felt that the same thing happened on Kris Schmidli’s second period goal for Kelowna, but the game continued and the goal was disallowed.

65 minutes solved nothing and a shootout would once again be required.

Each team had one goal through the first two rounds, but Jordan Cooke stopped David Soltes in the third round, and Justin Kirkland then scored on Brett Zarowny to give Kelowna the second point and their 10^th victory of the season.

The Cougars record now sits at 7-8-1-2, but despite losing four straight games they have managed to earn a point in three of those four games, and have earned at least a point in four of their past five games altogether. Klarc Wilson, Zach Pochiro, Troy Bourke and Alex Forsberg all had multi-point games while Brett Zarowny stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced in relief. Chase Witala also extended his league-leading point streak to eight games, which is the longest in the WHL so far this season.

Prince George was outshot 45-40 after 65-plus minutes and finished one-for-seven on the power play. Kelowna finished the game one-for-four.

These two teams will square off once again tomorrow night at the CN Centre with another huge two points on the line.