Brilliance from Tyler Brennan, and a pair of clutch goals from Ondrej Becher and Zac Funk lifted the Prince George Cougars to a 1-0 shootout victory over the Portland Winterhawks, Monday at the CN Centre.
Tyler Brennan was magnificent all afternoon long, earning a 31-save shutout, and his 13th victory of the season.
Despite a strong opening period from the Cougars and limiting the Winterhawks to just five shots, the game was scoreless after the opening 20 minutes.
In the second, the Cougars killed off a four-minute penalty to keep the game scoreless, along with more big stops from both Tyler Brennan and Dante Gianuzzi. The game remained scoreless after two periods.
In the third, the Cougars and Winterhawks traded chances, but both Brennan and Gianuzzi kept the game deadlocked. Both teams ripped the puck off the post in the final minutes of the period, however, the game remained 0-0 after 60 minutes.
In overtime, the Cougars and Winterhawks traded breakaways, but again it was Brennan and Gianuzzi slamming the door shut to keep the game at goose eggs after the overtime period.
In the shootout, Luca Cagnoni flipped one over the shoulder of Brennan in the second round to put the pressure on Ondrej Becher. Becher proceeded to go top shelf on the backhand to extend the shootout. It took seven rounds to decide the winner with Zac Funk out-waiting Gianuzzi and firing one in to get PG ahead. It all came down to Josh Zakreski who missed wide to give the Cougars an entertaining 1-0 victory.