For a third time within a calendar week, the Prince George Cougars secured a victory over the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night at Interior Savings Centre. Todd Fiddler had two power play goals, and Jordan Tkatch scored the shootout winner in round four to give the Cougars a 4-3 shootout victory. Twice the Cougars trailed by two goals, but found a way to earn their 17th win of the 2013-2014 season.

Just 2:45 into the game, the Blazers led 2-0. First it was Matt Revel who raced in on a two-on-one with Cole Ully. Revel chose to shoot and snuck the puck past Adam Beukeboom for his 10th of the season and first goal as a Kamloops Blazer. 28 seconds later, Tyson Ness took a Joe Kornelson pass from behind the goal and beat Beukeboom with a backhander for his 10th. Two shots, two goals, 2-0 Kamloops.

Todd Fiddler got the Cougars back within one on his first of two power play goals in the first period. For Fiddler it was his 100th career WHL regular season goal and it gave the Cougars some offensive life.

Kamloops responded with a power play goal of their own at 13:35 of the first. Former Cougar Carson Bolduc wrapped the puck around the goal, and it got caught up in feet in front of the goal. Jesse Shynkaruk charged into the goalmouth and whacked the puck into the net for his third goal of the season.

Four minutes later the Cougars once again answered with a power play marker. Tate Olson centered a pass from the left boards through a maze of sticks, right to Todd Fiddler who wired one up high and in for his 24th of the season and his second of the night.

The first period ended with the score 3-2, but the Cougars had 1:19 worth of power play time to start the second.

Kamloops weathered the early storm in the second and kept the Cougars scoreless. Despite throwing 14 shots on the Kamloops net, the Cougars shooters were robbed time-and-time again by Kamloops netminder Bolton Pouliot who finished with 33 saves on 36 shots faced.

To his credit, Cougars goaltender Adam Beukeboom bounced back after a tough start, and stopped the final 12 shots he faced in the second and third periods to keep his team within one.

6:33 into the third, the Cougars found the equalizer and it came off the stick of rookie Brad Morrison. Jansen Harkins got the play started by winning a battle along the right wing; he centered a pass to Brad Morrison who then went give-and-go with Klarc Wilson before notching his fifth goal of the season.

Each team had a few more chances in the final minutes, but Beukeboom and Pouliot kept the door shut and 60 minutes wouldn’t be enough.

Neither would the additional five minutes of overtime, and for the seventh time this season the Cougars would require a shootout.

Jesse Shynkaruk kicked off the shootout with a nice backhand-forehand deke goal for Kamloops, which gave them the early advantage. Bolton Pouliot denied both Zach Pochiro and Todd Fiddler on their shootout chances, and Adam Beukeboom denied Matt Revel and Matt Bellerive on their chances, which left the game in Cougars captain Troy Bourke’s hands.

Bourke needed to score to keep the shootout alive for Prince George and he did just that, roofing a shot to the top right corner over Pouliot’s glove.

Beukeboom did his part stopping Cole Ully’s attempt with his right pad, which set the table for Jordan Tkatch’s attempt for Prince George.

Tkatch raced slowly up the middle of the ice and flipped the puck up high over Pouliot’s blocker to give the Cougars the comeback victory. For Tkatch it was his second shootout winner of the season.

Prince George finished two-for-five on the power play while Kamloops went one-for-two on their power play chances. The Cougars outshot Kamloops 37-21.

With the victory, the Cougars improve their record to 17-23-2-4 and they remain four points back of the eighth placed Tri-City Americans in the Western Conference standings.

The Cougars will now head back home to Prince George and will return to action on Friday night against the Edmonton Oil Kings at the CN Centre.