Seattle, Wa. -Ty Edmonds and the Prince George Cougars are on quite a roll. Friday night in Seattle, the Prince George Cougars extended their winning streak to four straight games thanks to a 3-1 victory over the Thunderbirds. Jansen Harkins led the way with a goal and an assist while Edmonds made 26 saves. A Keegan Kolesar goal with .3 seconds left in the third was the only blemish on the evening for the Cougars who are now 7-4 on the season.

As they often do at home, Seattle came out firing, and dictated the play early on. Edmonds had to make some key saves early on, and the Cougars were also forced to kill two early penalties. Aided by his goal posts, Edmonds and the Cougars bent, but didn’t break, and managed to keep the game scoreless through the first 10 minutes of the period.

At 11:43 of the first, the Cougars got on the board first. Joe Carvalho’s point shot was stopped by Logan Flodell, but the rebound came right out in front to Jansen Harkins who lifted a backhand underneath the crossbar and in for his third of the season.

After one period the Cougars held an 11-8 lead in the shots department.

The game’s next goal came at 16:01 of the second period on a Prince George power play. Jared Bethune, who was dressing in his first ever WHL game, forced the puck free along the left wing wall to Chance Braid who quickly fired a shot towards the goal. Braid’s shot handcuffed Flodell, and found it’s way in for his second of the season and a 2-0 lead.

Early in the third the Cougars had great energy, and put a ton of early pressure on the T-Birds. Eventually they were rewarded for their efforts when Jari Erricson buried his team leading eighth of the season off his own rebound off a two-on-one rush.  Erricson’s goal was assisted by Harkins.

Mid-way through the third, the Cougars got into a bit of penalty trouble when both Marc McNulty and Wil Tomchuk were kicked out of the game for fighting. The Cougars had to finish the game with just four defencemen, but did so valiantly.

Late in the game, Thunderbirds coach Steve Konowalchuk pulled his goaltender in an attempt to break the Cougars shutout. The Cougars had a couple of cracks at the empty net, but couldn’t convert, and unfortunately the shutout bid came to an end with just .3 seconds left in the game. Keegan Kolesar one-timed a Justin Hickman pass by Ty Edmonds to give Seattle their lone tally.

Despite the spoiled shutout, the Cougars had much to celebrate on Friday. They finished one-for-five on the power play while killing off all four Seattle attempts on the man advantage. The win gives the Cougars their fourth consecutive road victory against the Thunderbirds, their fourth consecutive victory overall, and also helps them leapfrog the Kamloops Blazers into second place in the B.C. Division.

Saturday night in Vancouver, the Cougars will take aim at their fifth straight win as they lock horns with the Vancouver Giants for the fourth time in less than two weeks.