Overtime has not been kind this season to the Prince George Cougars.
Desperate for a win to put them into a playoff position, the Cougars were denied the two points they were after Tuesday. The Cats allowed just one goal but it was the only goal of the game, 1:02 into overtime, and it came off the stick of Kelowna Rockets captain Tyson Feist.
Feist found the net with his shot through the legs of goalie Ty Young.
The 17-year-old Young made 35 saves as the game’s first star and his stellar effort in the Cougars nets allowed them to gain one vital point for their overtime loss. Young was also in goal for Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Kamloops Blazers and helped preserve a point in that game as well, making 41 saves.
Rockets goalie Talyn Boyko stopped all 21 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season.
The win improved the Rockets’ overtime record this season to 7-1. The Cougars are now 1-5 in OT games.
Their single point left the Cougars tied with the Spokane Chiefs for the eight and final playoff spot in the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference. Prince George/Spokane are just one point behind the Vancouver Giants and Victoria Royals, who rank sixth and seventh respectively in the conference.
The Cougars, Chiefs and Royals all have four games left in the season, while the Giants have six games remaining.
The Rockets (38-19-1-5) moved to withing four points of the fourth-place Seattle Thunderbirds. The Rockets, down to their last five games, hold one game in hand over Seattle in the race to determine who will have home-ice advantage to open the WHL playoffs.
The Cougars and Rockets will meet again Wednesday (7 p.m.) at CN Centre.
The Cats called up midget goalie Madden Mulawka for Tuesday’s game. He replaced Tyler Brennan, who is out with an upper-body injury. Brennan was on the bench as an emergency backup on Sunday, having suffered the injury sometime last week. Mulawka was a fifth-round pick of the Cougars (100th overall) in the 2021 WHL draft.
