When you play with fire, you’re going to get burned, and the Prince George Cougars powerplay is an inferno right now.
The Cougars scored three goals on the powerplay last night, giving them a 5-2 win over the Victoria Royals.
The Cats had nine opportunities on the man advantage, much to the chagrin of the 3,571 fans in attendance at Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena in Victoria.
On the season, the Cougars have scored a league best 29 powerplay goals on 101 attempts.
They’ve also scored powerplay goals in eight straight games.
In terms of percentage, the Cougars (28.7%) are sitting second best behind the Portland Winterhawks. (25/77, 32.5%)
“It’s been really consistent, it’s been something that just keeps getting better, both units which is really nice to see,” said Cougars Associate Coach Josh Dixon on last night’s post-game show on 94.3 the Goat.
“We have kind of our top five guys who have had a lot of success this year, but with [Cole] Dubinsky scoring on the second unit, so to speak, it really makes us more of a dangerous threat.”
Dubinsky continued his torrid scoring pace, notching the first two goals on the night for the Cats, one of which came on the powerplay.
Cole Dubinsky remains on a HEATER, for those keeping track.@PGCougars pic.twitter.com/6gcIARQyvC
— The WHL (@TheWHL) November 20, 2022
Dubinsky has scored a goal in every game he’s played for the Cougars so far since being acquired from Regina earlier this month.
Chase Wheatcroft notched his 16th goal of the season, which was his league-leading ninth on the powerplay.
Riley Heidt added an assist on Wheatcroft’s goal, and scored a powerplay goal of his own.
Riley Heidt content?
Riley Heidt content.@PGCougars | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/fuxa5AyGV5
— The WHL (@TheWHL) November 20, 2022
Heidt and Hudson Thornton each have 12 powerplay assists on the season, good for a share of third in the league.
Ondrej Becher scored what would eventually be the game winner at even-strength.
Thornton and Koehn Ziemmer both tallied one assist each in the game to extend their point streaks to 13 games each.
Even though the game was all said and done in the dying seconds of the third period, the Royals showed they would not go down without a fight, or to be more accurate, five fights.
With 12 seconds left to go in the game Carlin Dezainde and Luke Rybinski dropped the mitts, and traded punches.
Ten seconds later, it was Viliam Kmec and Alex Edwards turn for fisticuffs.
After the final buzzer, three more scraps took place.
The full boxscore can be found here.
With the win, the Cougars (12-9-0-0) remain atop the WHL BC Division standings, two points ahead of the Kamloops Blazers. (9-4-3-1)
Kamloops lost against the Portland Winterhawks (16-1-1-1) in overtime last night, but still have four games in hand against the Cats.
The full WHL standings can be found here.
The Prince George Cougars will return home for a three-game homestand, starting on Wednesday against the Moose Jaw Warriors (13-8-0).