The Portland Winterhawks did it again to the Prince George Cougars.
Trailing 4-0 in the third period, Diego Buttazzoni scored on a two-man power play and the Winterhawks stormed back with three more goals in a three-minute span to tie the game.
Overtime settled nothing and it went to a shootout. Buttazzoni was the only shooter to score to complete a 4-3 Western Hockey League victory, shocking the partisan CN Centre crowd of 2,952.
It came one day after the ‘Hawks beat the Cougars 4-3 in overtime Tuesday night and four days after the Cats lost 3-2 in regulation time in Portland.
Evan Groening and Koehn Ziemmer (with his third goal and fourth point in two games since returning from the L.A. Kings camp) staked the Cats to a 2-0 lead in the first period, chasing Portland starting goalie Luke Brunen, who was replaced by Ondrej Stebalak.
Terik Parascak added two more goals for the Cats late in the second period.
Hudson Darby, Kyle Chyzowski and Tyson Jugnauth were the other Portland shooters who put the puck behind goalie Joshua Ravensbergen in their third-period comeback.
Shots were 31-29 in the Cougars’ favour.
The win improved the Winterhawks record to 6-1-0-0 (tied in points with Everett and Spokane atop the U.S. Division, while the Cougars (4-2-2-1) remain first in the BC Division.
Prince George will host the Prince Albert Raiders Saturday (6 p.m.) at CN Centre.
Tickets are available at the CN Centre box office or online at the Tickets North site.
