Cougars Surrender Late Equalizer, Fall 6-5 in OT
WHL Prince George Cougars

Cougars Surrender Late Equalizer, Fall 6-5 in OT

Published on January 2, 2026 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Prince George Cougars News Release


PENTICTON, BC - The Prince George Cougars opened the New Year with an overtime loss, falling 6-5 to the Penticton Vees on Thursday at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Five different Cougars found the back of the net, including Townes Kozicky, Brock Souch, Kooper Gizowski, Dmitri Yakutsenak, and Shaun Rios. Alexander Levshyn turned aside 39 of 45 shots in the defeat.

The opening period saw the Cougars take the lead early. Townes Kozicky rifled his second goal of the season 1:48 into the game to make it 1-0. The Cougars put together a very impressive road period out-shooting Penticton 11-6 and held on to a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.

In the second, the Vees started to get momentum in their favour. Penticton's Brittan Alstead tied the game at one just a minute into the period and then Chase Valiant gave Penticton their first lead of the game at 6:50. The Cougars tied the game two minutes later, with Brock Souch scoring a terrific short-handed goal at 8:50. Prince George shifted the ice in their favour with lots of chances and actually had to force Penticton to call their timoeut. Kooper Gizowski then re-stored the Cougars lead at 14:22 with a great shot in the slot to make it 3-2 Cougars. Penticton then tied the game at the 16:01 mark courtesy of Jiri Kamas. The Cougars, again, responded and it came off the stick of Dmitri Yakutsenak at 19:08 with a great individual effort knocking the puck out of mid air after gloving it down off a lively bounce off the end boards. The Cougars led 4-3 through 40 minutes.

In the third, the Cougars added another goal as Shaun Rios jammed in his fifth of the season and second as a Cougar to up the lead to 5-3 at the 6:48. After that goal, the Vees turned it up and got rewarded. Brooks DeMars made it a one goal game, beating Alex Levshyn at the 11:20 mark. Then with the net empty for Penticton, they found the eqaulizer and it came off the stick of Nolan Stevenson who fired a wrist shot from the blue-line that went by the blocker of Alex Levshyn to make it a 5-5 tie at 18:29 mark. The game needed OT.

It didn't take long for the Vees to deliver the OT winner. It came after a great 2 on 1 chance for the Cougars that missed the net but Ethan Weber came back the other way and wired a wrister by Levshyn just 26 seconds in to give the Vees a come-from-behind 6-1. This loss marks the Cougars fourth consecutive loss on the road.

"That's two games in a row now where players are showing their true capabilities when the pressure gets turned up and that's not what we expect," said Associate Coach Jim Playfair. "That's not what's going to win hockey games for us. When you take an honest hard look at it, we played scared. We didn't want the puck. Our top guys didn't want the puck, our veteran defencemen didn't want the puck, and that's a recipe for failure."

Full Interview with Associate Coach Jim Playfair

https://media.chl.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2026/01/02012135/Jan-1-Post-Game-Jim-Playfair.mp3

The Cats return home to begin a five-game home-stand beginning Saturday, January 3rd when they host the Calgary Hitmen at 6:00 pm.

Check out the Prince George Cougars Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from January 2, 2026


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