There were two shootouts in Prince George last night (Feb. 5).
While the Cougars triumphed over Seattle in their contest, the Spruce Kings suffered a 3-2 loss at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena to the Wenatchee Wild.
However, by earning a single point in the setback, the ‘Kings were able to punch a playoff ticket for the fourth consecutive season and will have a chance to defend their Fred Page Cup title.
The red, white and blue’s fourth shootout loss of the season downs their overall record to 17-28-2-4 with seven games remaining in the 2019-20 campaign.
Goaltender Carter Woodside recorded a new junior ‘A’ career-high 37 saves on 39 shots.
After a scoreless first period, Wenatchee broke the deadlock 3:33 into the second stanza and carried a 1-0 lead into the next intermission.
The Wild added another tally at 4:44 of the third period to give themselves a 2-0 cushion on the home side.
Nick Poisson started the comeback for Prince George roughly six minutes later, capitalizing on a power-play to reach the 20-goal and 45-point plateaus on his season and cutting the deficit to 2-1.
He received assists from Fin Williams and Nolan Welsh.
Corey Cunningham extended his scoring streak to six in his last five games to tie it up at 2-2 with four minutes left in regulation time.
The Prince George product’s 23rd of the season came off passes from Nick Bochen and Wil Kushniryk to turn the tilt to overtime.
Five minutes didn’t solve anything a shootout was needed to settle the Spruce Kings and the Wild.
Bochen was sent first and found a lane past Daniel Chenard, but that’s the only shootout goal that came off a Prince George stick.
Wenatchee scored on their two chances, while Tom Richter and Cunningham could not muster a completed comeback on Wednesday.
The Spruce Kings are back in their barn on Friday (Feb. 7), 7 p.m. against the Merritt Centennials.
