The Victoria Royals, trailing 2-0 heading into the third period, rallied for a 3-2 Western Hockey League shootout victory over the Cougars on Friday night at CN Centre in Prince George.
The Royals (16-9-2) moved to 5-0 against the Cougars this season with every game decided by one goal. The Western Conference and B.C. Division last-place Prince George squad fell to 6-20-4.
Tarun Fizer scored the deciding goal for Victoria in the shootout.
It was the Gary Haden show in in the third period as the overage 20-year-old Victoria forward scored his team leading 10th and 11th goals of the season to tie the game 2-2.
Goals by Reid Perepeluk and Ethan Browne, the latter on the power play, had given Prince George a 2-0 lead heading into the third period. But Haden scored just 12 seconds into the final period on the power play to bring Victoria to within one and then knotted proceedings at 18:53 with Royals’ goalkeeper Shane Farkas on the bench in favour of a sixth attacker.
Farkas, the WHL goaltender of the week, made 40 saves for Victoria and Taylor Gauthier 32 for Prince George. It was Farkas’ franchise-tying eighth-consecutive win.
The Royals and Cougars clubs meet again tonight on Teddy Bear Toss Night at the CN Centre.
The Royals return home to face the Spokane Chiefs on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
