Prince George, B.C. – They say you have to have a hot goalie who can steal some games for you in the playoffs and Friday night in Seattle the Prince George Cougars got precisely that kind of effort out of netminder Ty Edmonds.  However, the Cougars came up just short in dropping a 3-2 overtime thriller in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Thunderbirds.

Edmonds was nothing short of brilliant in registering 47 saves, including 21 in the third period as the T-Birds outshot the Cats 22-2 in that third frame and 50-23 in the game.

The first period was scoreless with Seattle holding a 12-9 edge in shots.  Jesse Gabrielle scored the first goal of the game, on the power play, at 6:51 of the second period as Prince George went up 1-0.  That lead held until 18:09 of the second when Donovan Neuls tied it up.  On to the third period and the Thunderbirds were on fire, repeatedly hemming the Cougars in their own zone and firing shot after shot at a seemingly unbeatable Edmonds.

But the home team finally managed to get the 2-1 goal at 16:34 when Alexander True fired the puck through traffic and into the net.  With time winding down and things looking slim for the Cougars, Seattle’s Jared Hauf took a hooking penalty at the 18:16 mark to give the Cats at least a hope of tying the game.  And, with 28.8 seconds left on the clock, the man advantage and Ty Edmonds on the bench for a sixth attacker, Jansen Harkins beat Landon Bow cleanly to square the score and send the contest to overtime.

Both teams had a couple of decent scoring chances in the extra period, with Seattle holding a slight territorial edge but nothing like they did in the third period.  The game winner was credited to Seattle’s Andreas Schumacher at the 11:50 mark of the first overtime period after the puck went off a couple of players in front of Edmonds and ticked off Schumacher’s skate.

The Cougars were outshot 9-4 in O/T, they went 2 for 5 for the night on the power play while their penalty-killers held the Thunderbirds scoreless on 5 manpower advantages.

So it’s on to Game 2 of the best-of-seven series, starting at 7:05 tonight in Seattle.