Sports by Hartley Miller as of 12:05 a.m. Saturday, April 16th
WHL:
Prince George Cougars 4 Kamloops Blazers 2
Ty Young made 43 saves and Captain Jonny Hooker snapped a 2-2 tie at 7:57 of the third period.
The box score and game highlights are right here.
Hooker’s winner came 26 seconds after Drew Englot of the Blazers tied the game at 2-2.
It was the biggest road win of the season for the Cougars who are on the verge of clinching a playoff spot.
The (24-38-4-1) Cougars are tied with the (24-38-5-0) Vancouver Giants for 6th in the Western Conference with 53 points, one point ahead of the (23-38-5-1) Victoria Royals and two in front of the 9th place (23-39-4-1) Spokane Chiefs.
All four teams have one game left and the top eight advance to the postseason.
The worst the Cougars can do is tie with Victoria and Spokane for 7th, 8th and 9th.
The team with the best goals-for-against would get 7th while the other two would play a tie-breaker.
The tie-breaking procedure is right here.
P.G. is -61, Victoria is -80 and Spokane is -103.
The Royals beat the Chiefs 7-3 Friday and will host Spokane again tonight.
The Giants lost 3-2 in overtime to the Kelowna Rockets and will conclude with a game tonight in Kamloops.
The Cougars wrap-up their regular season tonight when they visit Kelowna.
Prince George led Kamloops 2-0 after 40 minutes on second period goals by Riley Heidt and Connor Bowie.
Caden Brown put the game away with an empty net goal with 25 seconds left in the game.
The Blazers outshot the Cats 45-30 before 4,672 fans in Kamloops.
The WHL standings are right here.
The regular-season schedule and results for the PG Cougars are right here.
Cat Scan podcast:
CAT SCAN: @Hartley_Miller chats with @PGCougars associate coach Josh Dixon in this week”s episode
| https://t.co/K98kkOROWr #cityofpg #PrinceGeorge #northernbc #NorthernUprising #sports pic.twitter.com/08xgxWEPrn— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) April 13, 2022
Columns:
Canada’s U-18 coaching staff has WHL flavour . . . Blades salute former GM/head coach . . . WHL playoff spots undecided with nine games remaining https://t.co/6Pzh6LFb2w
— Gregg Drinnan (@gdrinnan) April 16, 2022
HARTLEY’S HART ATTACK – (Win and you are in) April 15th, 2022 EDITION 884 https://t.co/SnDBgGASFz pic.twitter.com/w35tVdBI5F
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) April 15, 2022
BCHL:
The Prince George Spruce Kings visit the Penticton Vees tonight at 7:00 in Game 2 of their best-of-seven Interior Division semifinal series.
The Vees won the opener 2-1 on Thursday as Josh Nadeau snapped a 1-1 tie with just 4.9 seconds left in the third period before 3,002 fans in Penticton.
The game stats are right here.
The series will shift to P.G. for Games 3 and 4 Monday and Tuesday.
A terrific night from Jordan Fairlie making 32 saves and Simon Labelle’s 4th of the post-season was not enough as the Penticton Vees score late in the third to take Game 1.
📸Cherie Morgan
📝https://t.co/R7DGEOAY3q#BCHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/SvKuAMuXI1
— Prince George Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) April 15, 2022
Game One Highlights are presented as always by the Siding Specialists at WR Ventures.#BCHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/4mUqRRPtgf
— Prince George Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) April 15, 2022
The Spruce Kings’ schedule against the Vees is as follows: PG home games in bold
Game 1 – Thursday, April 14th – Prince George @ Penticton – Penticton won 2-1
Game 2 – Saturday, April 16th – Prince George @ Penticton – 7 PM
Game 3 – Monday, April 18th – Penticton @ Prince George – 7 PM
Game 4 – Tuesday, April 19th – Penticton @ Prince George – 7 PM
Game 5 – Thursday, April 21st – Prince George @ Penticton – 7 PM (If Necessary)
Game 6 – Saturday, April 23rd – Penticton @ Prince George – 7 PM (If Necessary)
Game 7 – Monday, April 25th – Prince George @ Penticton – 7 PM (If Necessary)
The Spruce Kings playoff schedule and results are right here.
The BCHL final regular-season standings are right here.
NHL: (2 Friday games)
Florida 6 Winnipeg 1
NY Islanders 3 Montreal 0
The (37-28-10) Vancouver Canucks host Dallas Monday night at 7:30 and Ottawa Tuesday night at 7:00.
The Canucks, who have won five straight, are 4 points out of a playoff spot (behind third place LA in the Pacific Division) with 7 games remaining (4 at home).
Vancouver is also five points out of a wild-card spot.
The Canucks are 29-12-7 since Bruce Boudreau took over as coach.
Mike Bossy, a New York Islanders legend who was one of the NHL’s all-time greatest goal scorers, has died. He was 65.https://t.co/kdVRW7J49b
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 15, 2022
MLB:
Toronto Blue Jays 4 Oakland A’s 1
The 5-3 Jays host the A’s again today (12:07 PM PT) and Sunday (10:37 AM PT).
The Blue Jays schedule is right here.
The MLB standings are right here.
NBA:
The Toronto Raptors will start their first-round NBA playoff series against the 76’ers today (3:00 PT) in Philadelphia.
The (48-34) Raptors finished in 5th place in the Eastern Conference while the (51-31) 76’ers were 4th.
The NBA play-in results are right here.
The Raptors playoff schedule against Philadelphia is right here.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].