Friday night in Prince George, the Victoria Royals defeated the Prince George Cougars by a 5-3 score. Travis Brown broke open a 3-3 tie with a late third period goal with under five minutes remaining giving the Royals their sixth straight victory of the season against Prince George. Todd Fiddler responded with two goals for the Cougars and Zach Pochiro chipped in with a goal and an assist in a losing cause. The Cougars were outshot 38-27.

Late in the first period the Victoria Royals opened the scoring when Brett Cote pinched in from the left point, and knocked home a rebound that bounced back in front of the net off of the backboards behind the Cougars goal. Branden Magee took the initial point shot at the tail-end of a Victoria power play.

Prince George had plenty of great chances in the first, but Patrik Polivka was sharp stopping all eight shots he faced while Adam Beukeboom made 11 saves on 12 shots faced in the first period.

Shortly past the midway point of the second, Victoria went up 2-0 after a defensive miscue in the Cougars end. Logan Nelson split between two Cougars defensemen, and then slid a pass across the ice to the waiting Austin Carroll who backhanded a shot past Beukeboom for his 33rd goal of the season.

Exactly three minutes later the Cougars moved back within a goal when Todd Fiddler re-directed a point shot from Sam Ruopp over the left shoulder of Patrik Polivka. For Fiddler it was his 43rd goal of the season which helps him set a new WHL season high for goals, and it also got him to 90 points making him the third Cougar in 20 years to reach that mark.

The second period came to an end with the score 2-1 favoring the visitors. Victoria had a 28-20 edge in the shots department too.

Early in the third Victoria restored their  two goal lead when Logan Fisher snuck a backhand past Beukeboom off the rush.

Back came the Cougars though with two quick goals in a 1:13 span. First it was Zach Pochiro who one-timed home a Troy Bourke pass off the rush for his 27th. And then Fiddler beat Polivka on a breakaway for his second of the game and 44th of the season to give the Cougars the equalizer.

Back and forth the teams went, trading chances, and both goaltenders stood tall keeping the game tied.

With less than five minutes remaining Victoria took the lead for good when Taylor Crunk stole the puck beside the Cougars goal and centered a pass out in front to Travis Brown who made no mistake in the slot for his 13th of the season. Branden Magee added an empty-netter to give the Royals their 44th win of the season.

With the loss, the Cougars record now sits at 26-33-3-5 and with five games left they still remain just two points back of eighth place thanks to Tri-City's 3-2 loss in Everett.  The Cougars will look to inch closer to eighth tomorrow night when they host Victoria in the rematch.