The Prince George Cougars took a 3-0 series lead over the Kelowna Rockets with a goal 1:22 into overtime on Tuesday night at Prospera Place in Kelowna.
After being held scoreless in the first two games of the series in Prince George, the Rockets were able to put three past goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen including a late third period goal from captain Gabriel Szturc to force overtime.
In extra time the Rockets lost the puck tying to enter the Cougars zone, turning the other way Matteo Danis jammed the centering feed past Jari Kykkanen to secure the Cougars victory.
"The overtime, it was a minute twelve?" said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette in his postgame interview. "You work so hard and it's a game of inches, you take a half a second off on the back check and it's in the back of your net. It's tough because our guys competed for, they played."
The Rockets power play was shut down five times on the night, with the majority of the man advantages coming in the first frame.
"We didn't score, but we didn't lose any momentum," said Mallette. "We had chances, we had 18 shots on net in the first period, we had opportunities that they were blocking and sacrificing. It was a lot different than what it was up in Prince George where our power play couldn't gain any traction. I think besides the fact it didn't score we did a lot of really good things on it and that's something to build on."
The Rockets must win tomorrow or else their season will come to an end.
"We did a lot of really good things today, our compete, our sacrifice," said Mallette. "It was there and we had opportunities, we hit some posts and we worked hard. We have to take that same mindset into tomorrow, we have to play the same way or better because if we don't we know what the end result is."
With Andrew Cristall sitting in the penalty box, Hudson Thornton (2) capitalized on the Cougars man advantage to open the game's scoring 4:19 into the first period.
Caden Price from the high slot dished the pick over to Ethan Neutens (1) where he let a one-timer fly from the left face off circle that found its way into the back of the net five minutes into the second period. Fifty-ne seconds later Michael Cicek (2) gave the Rockets their first lead of the series with another shot from the left face off circle. Ondrej Becher (3) tied things up at 13:04 with the Cougs second power play goal of the game. At 13:13 Hiroki Gojsic and Carlin Dezainde dropped the gloves, both were assessed game misconducts.
With Jari Kykkanen behind the Rockets and a Cougar pressuring him, he played the puck right onto the blade of Borya Valis (5) to give Prince George the lead 10:25 into the third period. The Cougars made the puck bounce off of Tij Iginla's stick as he cruised through the slot, Andrew Cristall then whiffed on the shot but Gabriel Szturc (5) picked up the puck to tie the game with 5:52 to play in regulation.
Attempting to enter the Cougars zone, Oren Shtrom fed the puck up to Jett Lajoie. From the bottom of the left faceoff circle, Lajoie went to cut around Marek Rocak but centred the puck where Matteo Danis (1) played the hero jamming it past Jari Kykkanen.
Kelowna and Prince George will square off again tomorrow at 7:05 pm for game four at Prospera Place. The Rockets must win or else their season will come to an end.