In sports, it’s never over until the final whistle and the Prince George Cougars came close to finding that out the hard way in a 4-3 win over the Wenatchee Wild Friday night.
The Cougars held a 4-1 lead heading into the final minutes, but found themselves on the wrong end of a two-man-advantage.
Shaun Rios scored with two Cougars in the box with 20 seconds to go, and Lukas McCloskey brought the Cougar lead to one with just six seconds to go.
Riley Heidt won the ensuing faceoff to help seal the Prince George win.
“I think this time of our year is to try and get two points out of each and every game,” said Cougars Associate Coach Jim Playfair on the post-game show on 94.3 the Goat.
“When you look at our schedule, we’ve broken the last 14 games down into two seven-game series so we can have a mindset of preparing ourselves to get the playoff habits and details in place. This was game one of our second series, and we didn’t start maybe the way we wanted to start, but I thought we found our way through the first period, we got a little bit better in the second period.”
“Overall when you break it all out, I thought our fourth line was excellent, I thought our third line was excellent, I thought our first and second lines were much better in the second period,” Playfair said.
Patrick Sopiarz gave the Cougars bench plenty of life, laying a pair of big hits and dropping the gloves on the same play.
“I’m sure on the scorecard he won the fight, but more importantly he brought the energy we needed to our bench, and I think that got everybody else dialed up and into the game,” Playfair said.
Josh Ravensbergen was outstanding again, making 26 saves.
Wide open in the slot, Terik Parascak opened the scoring after taking a Koehn Ziemmer feed.
Terik Parascak alone in front of the net – anyone want to guess what happens next?@Capitals | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/vT2DoSUzzP pic.twitter.com/X7eGMaLpGn
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 8, 2025
McCloskey got the Wild on the board, putting a shot past the glove of Josh Ravensbergen.
This shot from Deagan McMillan gets a clip from McCloskey, and Wenatchee ties it up!#PowerOfThePack pic.twitter.com/QQtOqCPg86
— Wenatchee Wild (@WHLwild_) March 8, 2025
Aiden Foster gave the Cougars the lead with a “hockey pick-six,” stealing a Wenatchee pass and burying the breakaway with a backhand shot.
Foster stole it and never looked back 🏃♂️#NHLDraft | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/YVuOZ5wnL3 pic.twitter.com/7r4xAWxn5U
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 8, 2025
Viliam Kmec put the Cougars up two late in the second, taking a Parascak feed on the powerplay.
Foster stole it and never looked back 🏃♂️#NHLDraft | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/YVuOZ5wnL3 pic.twitter.com/7r4xAWxn5U
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 8, 2025
Borya Valis slid one into the empty net, which proved to be the game winner.
The box score is here.
The Cougars (37-19-4-2) are now just one point back of the Victoria Royals (36-16-3-6) in the race for the BC Division title.
The Cougars got plenty of help from the Spokane Chiefs, who nearly hit double digits in a 9-2 win over Victoria.
The Royals do have a game in hand, and will visit Prince George for the final two games of the season.
The WHL standings are here.
The Cougars road swing continues tonight (Saturday) taking on the Everett Silvertips.
The full Cougars schedule is here.
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