Calvin Pickard doesn't mind shootouts.
He's been through 10 of them already this season and six of the 13 wins the Seattle Thunderbirds netminder has have been determined that way.
Ty Rimmer is no slouch in that department either.
The 18-year-old goalie for the Prince George Cougars was a perfect 2-0 in WHL showdown situations until Saturday night, when he came up one stop short of saving the Cougars' bacon.
After three misses, Cougar shooter Nick Buonassisi gave the Cats the upper hand, the only shooter to score on Pickard, but T-birds forward Connor Savido picked the corner successfully and Colin Jacobs's deke through the legs of Rimmer put the capper on a 5-4 comeback win for Seattle.
"We're playing in a lot of tight games and the Western Conference is so tight so there's going to be more shootouts than usual and to get two points out of this one is huge," said Pickard.
"It was 3-0 and I was kind of fighting the puck for awhile and we scored a couple goals to get ourselves back in the game."
Rimmer was at his best late in the third period as the T-birds pressed for the go-ahead goal and he gave the Cougars a chance to win it overtime.
"The guys played hard for 65 minutes and it comes down to one shot and unfortunately I wasn't able to come through and we lost," said Rimmer. "To have a 3-0 lead in our own barn, that's unacceptable for us to not come away with two points. We worked hard for both games this weekend and it's definitely disappointing."
The blown lead highlighted one of the Cougars vulnerabilities this season. They did that in Edmonton, and lost. They let bottom-feeders Regina and Calgary back into games that should have been easy wins. And on Saturday, they let the T-birds wriggle off the hook and tossed away a point to a team that beat the Cats 5-4 on Friday.
But there's no need to panic. The Cougars came into the weekend riding a season-high four-game win streak and the point kept them first in the B.C. Division.
"It's disappointing, we worked so hard this weekend and only managed to get one point," said Cougars winger Taylor Stefishen. "We're staying positive, we still feel we're a very good team and we're not worried at all."
The game began ominously for Pickard when Sena Acolatse, on a backhander, and Charles Inglis, scored less than two minutes apart. Hard-working centre Greg Fraser had his efforts rewarded with his sixth of the season, a rebound that gave the Cats their 3-0 lead, 13:07 of the first period. Fraser came close to expanding the lead right after that with two great shots on a Cougar power play, but Pickard stood his ground.
Then with two whacks of a stick, the three-goal lead was whittled down to one. Charles Wells took advantage of a power-play rebound to get the T-birds started at 18:22 of the first, and less than a minute later, Brenden Dillon unloaded a shot in over Rimmer's trapper.
James Dobrowolski made it a 4-2 game just 31 seconds into the second period, and the T-birds countered in the last minute of the period, a perfectly-placed feed from Luke Lockhart to Marcel Noebels that left Rimmer no chance. Wells tied it 15:35 into the third period, shoving the uncovered puck and Rimmer's pad over the line after Noebels was stuffed.
The Cougars owned the T-birds in overtime but couldn't score. Cody Carlson creeped in all alone and Pickard kicked out his leg just in time and Acolatse was also denied a chance to be the hero against his former team.
T-birds assistant coach Turner Stevenson returned to familiar territory and was glad to leave his former home with four points. The win left Seattle (13-8-3-4) even in points with the Cougars (15-11-2-1) in the Western Conference standings. Just five points separates the second-place Cougars from 10th-place Everett.
"It's such an odd year with teams being so bunched up," Stevenson said. "We were on a three-game losing streak and it was good to cut that. You get on a four- or five-game losing streak and you could be out of it right away."
KITTY LITTER: Connolly had a painful end to the first period when his ankle took the brunt of a point shot while killing a penalty. He missed half the second period receiving treatment in the trainer's room... Former NHL forward Steve Thomas was among the crowd of 1,941 in attendance Saturday. Now working as the player development consultant for the Tampa Bay Lighting, Thomas was in town to check out Connolly, the Lightning's first-round draft pick in 2010...Tuesday's game at CN Centre against the Eastern Conference-leading Saskatoon Blades could be Connolly's last at home this month. He'll join Pickard in Toronto next Monday at the world junior team tryouts... After four straight losses, Don Hay of the Vancouver Giants finally got his 500th win as a WHL head coach, a 2-1 win over Chiliwack. Hay joins Ken Hodge (742), Ernie McLean (548), and Pat Ginnell (518) in the 500 club.
