CALGARY – The Prince George Cougars snapped their three-game losing skid with a come from behind 6-5 victory over the Calgary Hitmen, Wednesday at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex.
Koehn Ziemmer and Jaxsen Wiebe led the Cougars offense, combining for six points, which included the game winning goal. Tyler Brennan earned his seventh win of the season, making 30 saves on 35 Calgary shots.
The Cougars supplied a good chunk of pressure in the opening period and got great goaltending from Tyler Brennan. Calgary got the icebreaker when Tomis Marinkovic roofed one on Brennan just under 15 minutes into the game. The Cats responded with a power-play goal from Koehn Ziemmer to knot the game at one after the opening 20 minutes.
In the second, the Hitmen jumped back into the lead just under two minutes in. Carson Wetsch scored to make it 2-1 for the home team. Just over three minutes later, in his return to his hometown, Chase Wheatcroft got the Cougars back even with his team leading 27th of the season.
The Hitmen continued to push back, and captain Riley Fiddler-Schultz pushed his group ahead with his 23rd goal of the season. The pesky Cougars continued to stick around, however, as former Hitmen forward Zac Funk shovelled in his first as a Cougar in his return against his former team.
The second period appeared it was headed to be deadlocked at 3, but Hitmen forward Jacob Wright had other ideas. Wright ripped one by Brennan in the final 30 seconds of the period to push Calgary ahead.
In the final period, the Hitmen added to their lead just under four minutes in. Oliver Tulk netted his 17th of the season to make it 5-3. The Cougars might have looked like they were going to drop their fourth contest in a row, but they had other plans. The Cats lethal power-play went back to work and a Jaxsen Wiebe one timer put them back within one.
Just over four minutes later, Koehn Ziemmer sniped his second of the game on goaltender Ethan Buenaventura to tie the game at five.
Four minutes and 38 seconds after the Ziemmer goal, and right after the media timeout, Chase Wheatcroft raced in on a 2 on 1 and found linemate Jaxsen Wiebe who ripped his second by Buenaventura to give the visitors their first lead of the night.
Calgary pushed in the final minutes, but the Cougars held their ground with multiple shot blocks, and big saves from Tyler Brennan to triumph the Cats to a 6-5 win.