Nick Buonassisi's shootout goal gave the visiting Prince George Cougars a 4-3 win over the Chilliwack Bruins Saturday, ending a six-game road losing streak.
Buonassisi and defenceman Sena Acolatse each scored on Lucas Gore in the shootout, while Kevin Sundher was the only Bruin to put the puck past James Priestner.
Before it got to that point, Taylor Stefishen scored twice for the Cats, including a shorthanded marker that opened the scoring 10:13 into the first period. Stefishen put the Cougars ahead 3-2 with 18 seconds left in the second period, a lead that held until the 5:39 mark of the third period, when Robin Soudek cashed in a Bruins' power-play chance. Greg Fraser had the other goal for the Cougars and also picked up an assist.
Prince George minor hockey product Ryan Howse, the Bruins' leading scorer, collected his 32nd goal of the season on a power play in the first period. Mitch Topping was the other Chilliwack scorer.
Priestner made 32 saves as the game's first star, earning his 14th win of the season.
"Our goalie played great and he was good in (Friday's 3-0 loss in Vancouver) and gave us a chance to win both nights," said Cougars head coach Dean Clark.
"These guys needed a win in the worst way, on the road especially, and that will do a lot for our confidence moving into the week."
The Cougars went 0-4 on the power play, while the Bruins scored twice on six chances and had the Cougars penalty-killers on the run.
"We probably gave them too many opportunities on the power play and eventually with that team if you give them enough chances they're going to put them in," said Clark.
"We created a lot more chances than they did -- if we could played the game more 5-on-5 we probably wouldn't have had to go to overtime."
Rookie Josh Smith was among the most snakebitten Cougars. Clark moved him up from defence to play the wing on a line with Jaroslav Vlach and Brock Hirsche.
"We juggled things quite a bit, we changed up our D pairs and did a good of finding some rhythms and everything turned out. The guys played hard."
The Cougars (23-21-2-1) host the Kamloops Blazers Wednesday night at CN Centre.
