What a way for the Prince George Cougars to start their season.
Carter MacAdams, Czechia import Ondrej Becher, rookie defenceman Ephram McNutt and rookie goalie Madden Mulawka led the Cougars to a convincing 5-1 Friday night win over the Tri-City Americans before 2,497 fans at CN Centre.
McNutt earned his first WHL goal, on the Cougars first shot of the season, just over two minutes into the game, completing a two-on-one after taking a pass from MacAdams.
In the second period, Prince George put the game away with three unanswered goals, two of them by MacAdams, just 19 seconds apart.
Becher was impressive at both ends of the ice.
Not only was he effective on the penalty kill but in his first game with the Cougars he demonstrated an offensive flair with a goal and an assist.
“What he (Becher) showed tonight, with his speed, with his hockey sense, he scored a nice goal, had a couple other breakaway chances he could have scored on,” said Cougars Head Coach and GM Mark Lamb on the 94.3 the Goat post-game show.
Making your first WHL goal look easy! Congratulations, Ondrej Becher!@PGCougars pic.twitter.com/gPcRQDHf9o
— The WHL (@TheWHL) September 24, 2022
With Ty Young and Tyler Brennan away at their respective NHL training camps, Mulawka stepped between the pipes for his first WHL start.
He looked confident, showing no signs of nerves, as he stopped all but one of the 24 shots he faced.
It was far from a clean game, as the Cougars picked up 18 penalty minutes and the Americans more than doubled that with 39.
The Cats did struggle on the powerplay, scoring just once (Koehn Zimmer in the third) on 10 opportunities with the man advantage.
“I think we got tricked a little bit, in exhibition our powerplay was so good, we were scoring kind of at will, and you didn’t have to work very hard for it,” Lamb said.
“It’s a good lesson for it, we’ll regroup tomorrow (Saturday), we’ll look at some things, and we know that we’ve got some good players out there that can really move it around.”
The full box score can be found here.
The Cougars will host Tri-City again tonight (Saturday) with puck drop at 6:00.
GAME SUMMARY
SCORING
PG: 1st Period-2:11- Ephram McNutt (1). Assists: Carter MacAdams, Madden Mulawka.
PG: 2nd Period-5:51- Carter MacAdams (1). Assists: Ondrej Becher, Blake Eastman
PG: 2nd Period-6:08- Carter MacAdams (2). Assists: Caden Brown, Ephram McNutt
PG: 2nd Period-12:34- Ondrej Becher (1). Assists: Blake Eastman, Husdon Thronton
TC: 3rd Period-6:31- Ian Ferguson (1). Assists: Jake Sloan
PG: 3rd Period-12:55-PP- Koehn Ziemmer (1). Assists: Keaton Dowhaniuk
GOALTENDING
Americans: Tomas Suchanek (L), 60:00 (5 GA, 36 SVS)
Cougars: Madden Mulawka (W), 60:00 (1 GA, 23 SVS)Â Â Â Â
SHOTS
Americans: 24
Cougars: 41
SPECIAL TEAMS
Americans: 0/5
Cougars: 1/10
THREE STARS:
1) Carter MacAdams (PG)
2) Ondrej Becher (PG)
3) Ephram McNutt (PG)