Tasked with their first must-win game scenario, the Prince George Cougars passed with flying colours.
Ethan Samson’s point blast at 13:29 of the third period sent an enthusiastic crowd of 2,759 fans at the CN Centre home happy with a 2-1 win over the Victoria Royals on Saturday.
With the win, the Cougars (23-38-4-1) moved into a tie for sixth place in the Western Conference with the Spokane Chiefs (23-38-4-1).
“It’s huge, that puts us in a playoff spot again and that is what all the guys want. We’ve had quite the drought over the past few years so it was a good heads up play by Heiter (Riley Heidt) who gave it to me there and I just let it fly,” said Samson post-game to MyPGNow.com.
Ethan Samson brings the hammer down!💪@PGCougars | @NHLFlyers pic.twitter.com/E9ywAYrw8R
— The WHL (@TheWHL) April 10, 2022
Samson, a Philadelphia Flyers prospect, mentioned it was key to carry out an even keel prior to heading on the ice knowing their playoff destiny was hanging in the balance.
“You can’t be too tense, you can’t be too scared or loose to drop any points right now. We have nothing to lose as we were behind and I think everyone did what they were comfortable with. The loose guys were focused and ready to go.”
The Cougars received another stellar performance in between the pipes from rookie netminder Ty Young who stopped 29 of 30 Victoria shots.
Young, a 17-year-old from Coaldale, Alberta is starting to get into groove after filling in for injured starter Tyler Brennan.
“Brenns has been hurt the last few games so I had to step in and those games kind of gave me a little bit of confidence, allowing me to get into a zone.”
“There were some butterflies because it’s a huge game for us obviously but we got the win. It wasn’t great to let the first goal in on the second shot but after that I settled down and got my confidence for the rest of the game.”
Ty Young, ladies and gentlemen 😻 pic.twitter.com/lwk54exzXw
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) April 10, 2022
Young said the Cougars really wanted to pull through for their three overagers, Jonny Hooker, Connor Bowie and Jonas Brondberg who all played their final regular season home game.
“None of our 20-year-olds have had any playoff games so I really wanted to help them get a series at least and it was amazing to get the win for them.”
Victoria drew first blood at 1:27 of the first period as Danish forward Marcus Almquist stripped Caden Brown off the puck, took it up the ice and ripped it in between both Cougar defencemen, handcuffing Young in the process.
Hooker responded with a greasy one deep inside the Royals crease as a shot attempt by Craig Armstrong went inside the post past a sprawled out Tyler Palmer leading to a tap in from the Cougar captain, tying the score at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Victoria outshot PG 30-23 overall but went 0-for-2 on the man advantage.
The Royals also dropped a last-second heartbreaker to the Kamloops Blazers 4-3 on Friday from Sandman Centre.
Victoria (22-38-5-1) now finds themselves tied for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with Vancouver Giants as both teams have 50 points.
The Giants (23-37-4-0) on the other hand, dropped an 8-4 decision to the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday, extending their losing streak to eight games but still have two games in hand on the Royals.
The Chiefs lost on Saturday as well, 6-2 to the Thunderbirds in Seattle.
The race for the final three playoff spots:
As the WHL regular season draws to a close, Victoria, Spokane, PG and Vancouver are all jockeying for the final three playoff spots in the Western Conference.
Here is a full breakdown of each team’s remaining schedule:
PG Cougars (23-38-4-1) tied for sixth place – 51 points
April 15th at Kamloops Blazers (47-16-3-0)
April 16th at Kelowna Rockets (40-19-1-5)
Spokane Chiefs (23-38-4-1) tied for sixth place – 51 points
April 15th at Victoria Royals (22-38-5-1)
April 16th at Victoria Royals (22-38-5-1)
Victoria Royals (22-38-5-1) tied for eighth place – 50 points
April 15th vs Spokane Chiefs (23-38-4-1)
April 16th vs Spokane Chiefs (23-38-4-1)
Vancouver Giants (23-37-4-0) tied for eighth place – 50 points
April 10th at Kelowna Rockets (40-19-1-5)
April 13th vs Seattle Thunderbirds (40-18-4-2)
April 15th vs Kelowna Rockets (40-19-1-5)
April 16th at Kamloops Blazers (47-16-3-0)
Northern fans are simply built different 😤🍻 pic.twitter.com/JOfi9gB8HK
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) April 10, 2022