It wasn’t pretty, but the the Prince George Cougars finished third in the WHL Western Conference after a 4-3 shootout victory over the Victoria Royals, in front of 4,225 fans at Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena.
The Cougars win plus the Kelowna Rockets 2-1 loss to the (43-14-6-4) Penticton Vees allowed Prince George to lock up third.
Prince George has 88 points, with a record of 43-22-2-0, while (38-20-6-3) Kelowna has 85 points with each team having one game left.
The Cougars were coasting to a 3-0 lead in the provincial capital before the Royals got hot, as the Cats were caught sleeping.
Victoria’s Nolan Stewart scored at 13:03 of the second period to cut the deficit to 3-1 after 40.
— Victoria Royals (@victoriaroyals) March 21, 2026
The desperate Royals got even following a pair of third period power play goals from Caleb Matthews just over two minutes apart (at 4:23 and 6:35) in the third.
— Victoria Royals (@victoriaroyals) March 21, 2026
After neither team scored in the five minute 3-on-3 overtime, the Cougars looked to end the shootout early, sending out Dmitri Yakutsenak and Aiden Foster, who have scored in each of their shootout attempts this season, with this game being no different.
Prince George is now a perfect 5-0 in shootouts this season.
Yakutsenak sets em up, Foster knocks em down!@CarlsJrCA l @TBLightning https://t.co/o4V6tCrxkb pic.twitter.com/R31VVhkFEO
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 21, 2026
Extra time almost seemed out of the picture until Victoria rallied which was a sentiment felt by the coaching staff.
“When you’re up three, you got to play the right way.” said assistant coach Carter Rigby on the 94.3 the Goat post-game show.
“We shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with, shouldn’t have given away a point, but at the end of the day, we get two and we move on from here.”
Seven. Straight. Wins.
We lock up third place in the west with a 4-3 shootout win over Victoria!
Recap and reaction from Assistant Coach Carter Rigby!https://t.co/9iXBu3EJrs#ForTheNorth • #WHL pic.twitter.com/EFWChAFPtJ
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 21, 2026
While it wasn’t his strongest night, Josh Ravensbergen deserves his flowers locking down the crease in the latter half of the third period.
Overall, the 19-year-old Ravensbergen, who leads the WHL in save percentage (0.919) and goalie wins (32), blocked 34 of 37 shots, including the two he faced in overtime.
Cougars Captain Bauer Dumanski got the scoring started late in the first period, with a snipe from above the hashmarks, and would be the only goal that period.
Bauer scoops, Bauer scores!@CarlsJrCA https://t.co/AMVkDt0qOI pic.twitter.com/EnKPxFoetI
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 21, 2026
Momentum seemed to favour the Cats, as Brock Souch would net the team’s second goal 20 seconds into the second period, with Aiden Foster following up with a goal of his own seven minutes later.
Foster forecheck, Parascak pass, Souch snipe. TEAMWORK!@CarlsJrCA https://t.co/mjES2zJYBz pic.twitter.com/QyNp7mdWKp
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 21, 2026
Lightning (prospect) strikes in this one!@CarlsJrCA l @TBLightning https://t.co/LUFmBb3bgn pic.twitter.com/Y4L7OGHWj1
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 21, 2026
The Cougars are riding a season-high seven game winning streak and will end their regular season tonight (Saturday 6:05 puck drop) with another game against the 9th place Royals.
The (28-29-6-4) Royals are on the verge on missing the (8-team) playoffs as they sit a point behind the 8th place Portland Winterhawks and two back of the 7th place Seattle Thunderbirds.
Also on Friday, the (30-30-6-1) Winterhawks scored with three seconds left in the third period and then won it in overtime, 4-3 over the Tri-City Americans.
The (29-27-6-4) Thunderbirds beat the Spokane Chiefs 4-3 in overtime as Cameron Schmidt of Prince George scored his league-leading 46th goal with just 22 seconds remaining in the OT.
A key game tonight has Seattle at Portland.
The regular season concludes Sunday with Seattle at Spokane.
The (35-29-2) Chiefs are 6th, a point behind the (30-24-7-6) Kamloops Blazers.
The Blazers outscored the Vancouver Giants 7-3 on Friday with those teams having a rematch this evening in Langley.
Spokane will play tonight at Tri-City.
The Cougars will play either Kamloops or Spokane (whoever ends up 6th) in the first round of the playoffs which will begin on Friday, March 27th at CN Centre.
The WHL standings are here.
(With files from Hartley Miller)
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