For the second time in two weeks, the (7-5-0-1) Tri-City Americans defeated the Prince George Cougars at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Washington.
It was a disappointing outing on Saturday night for the (3-9-0-1) Cougars as they struggled to find twine, despite outshooting the Americans 41-25.
The Cougars also saw their starting goalie in Taylor Gauthier fall to injury, leaving the game late in the 2nd period with a lower-body injury.
Paycen Bjorklund put the Americans on the board first after a Prince George turnover in front of their net. The Americans held on to a one-goal lead until an impressive individual effort from Rhett Rhinehart evened things up in the game for Prince George.
Sam Huo put the Americans back in front with an early second-period goal, assisted by Nick Bowman and Ian Ferguson. The assists marked Ferguson’s first-ever WHL point. Sasha Mutala extended the lead to two just a minute later.
Goaltender Taylor Gauthier left late in the 2nd period due to injury. He allowed three goals on 13 shots. 16-year-old Tyler Brennan came in and finished the game in net for the Cougars.
The Cougars tried to make a comeback by taking advantage of some penalty trouble that the Americans found themselves in during the third period. Edge Lambert received a double minor for high sticking followed up by a high sticking penalty on Kyle Olson. Tri-City was able to kill off the four-minute powerplay, including two minutes of 5-on-3, but Prince George scored soon after the man advantage expired. The goal, from Filip Koffer, would be Prince George’s final tally of the evening.
Tri-City took off with the score adding two empty-net goals to seal a 5-2 victory.
Prince George will now travel to Langley to face the (7-8) Vancouver Giants tomorrow (Sunday) at 4:00 p.m.