If the Prince George Cougars expect to be an elite team in the WHL’s Western Conference, they need to learn how to keep teams on the mat.
A four-goal third period propelled the Tri-City Americans to a convincing 8-3 victory over the Cats in front of a sparse crowd of 1,218 fans at CN Centre on Saturday.
“I don’t think anybody would have believed we would have put eight on them, but it is what it is. I think you could see last night (Friday) how dangerous they are when they get going as the have guys who could really score and we did a better job of staying out of the box and getting more by them,” stated Stu Barnes, Americans head coach.
Back it Friday at home vs Kelowna. pic.twitter.com/EOnoLkhWos
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) September 25, 2022
Similar to Friday’s game, the Cougars drew first blood – this time from Koehn Ziemmer who accepted a Chase Woodcroft feed and slipped it past Tri-City netminder Tomas Suchanek.
The early momentum would be short-lived as the Americans notched three unanswered goals on rookie netminder Madden Mulawka who was making his 2nd career WHL start.
Ex-Kamloops Blazer Reese Belton evened the score for the visitors capitalizing on a Drew Freer pass blasting it past Mulawka.
Ethan Ernst and Jake Sloan struck twice in a span of 98 seconds giving Tri-City a 3-1 edge after 20 minutes.
“We didn’t play a 200-foot game tonight. We have all the skill and ability to put picks into the net, but you also have to play defense and tonight we did not do a good job of that,” stated Hudson Thronton, Cougars defenceman.
Both teams continued the offensive excitement in the second, as Ziemmer collected his second of the game on the power-play to trim the deficit to 3-2.
Three minutes later Dwayne Jean Jr. (Tri-City) and Riley Heidt (Cougars) traded goals for their respective sides to conclude the second period with Tri-City in front 4-3.
Hello, it’s Dwayne Jean Jr. ☎️ pic.twitter.com/VIENikvVzE
— Tri-City Americans (@TCAmericans) September 25, 2022
The only thing that got in the way of a Cougars comeback was Suchanek who made several point-blank saves early in the third.
Among the missed opportunities included Hudson Thornton misfiring on a 3-on-1 rush.
Suchanek then outwaited Ziemmer deep in his crease moments later.
“Tomas was excellent tonight. At this level in this league, you need a goalie that can stop pucks for you, and we are really fortunate we have two guys in Tomas and Nick (Avakyan) that we have a lot of confidence in,” added Barnes.
A glovely save from Tomas Suchanek. 🧱️ pic.twitter.com/LqUR0bpeLl
— Tri-City Americans (@TCAmericans) September 25, 2022
Ernst, Jean Jr, Lukas Dragicevic and import forward Adam Mechura added to the Americans lead in the final period.
The trio of Ernst, Sloan and Jordan Gavin combined for seven points.
Three point night for Ethan Ernst 🔥 pic.twitter.com/jTKpQKrabi
— Tri-City Americans (@TCAmericans) September 25, 2022
PG outshot Tri-City 41-28, but the difference was between the pipes.
Suchanek turned away 38 Cougar shots while Mulawka allowed eight Americans markers on 28 attempts.
The Cougars were without their top two goaltenders for a second straight night as Tyler Brennan (New Jersey) and Ty Young (Vancouver) continue to attend their respective NHL camps.
P.G. also did not have defenceman Ethan Sampson (Philadelphia), who was also away at an NHL camp.
On the other hand, Tri-City earned its first win of the season without either of the top-two scorers from 2021-22 in Parker Bell and Marc Lajoie.
PG continues its four-game home stand Friday and Saturday (September 30th and October 1st) against the Kelowna Rockets at CN Centre.
Opening weekend:✅
Even more hockey:🔜#WHLScores pic.twitter.com/crFRrS8xcu— The WHL (@TheWHL) September 25, 2022