No one will be happier to see a flu bug leave a team dressing room than Mark Lamb.
The nasty seasonal virus continued to ravage the Prince George Cougars during a hard-fought 6-5 overtime loss on Friday against the Memorial Cup host Kamloops Blazers in front of 2,332 fans at CN Centre.
“I give the guys a lot of credit for coming back in that game. The energy factor is huge right now, we just don’t have a lot,” said Lamb post game.
“We haven’t practiced in two weeks and our guys are getting out of shape, having to deal with all of this stuff is hard. You can’t really do anything differently, it’s all energy – this is real life stuff, this has nothing to do with anything else other than a sickness.”
Fraser Minten is fire on ice.@blazerhockey | @MapleLeafs pic.twitter.com/4B5NM0euKN
— The WHL (@TheWHL) December 17, 2022
For the second game in a row, the Cats looked lethargic spotting the Blazers a 4-0 lead in the first period.
Shea Van Olm opened the scoring for Kamloops at the 1:35 mark of the opening frame taking advantage of an Ashton Ferster power move along the Cougar wall and solving Ty Young.
The Blazers checking line struck again nine minutes later, only this time it was Ferster lighting the lamp, courtesy of Van Olm to double the lead.
Daylan Kuefler and Ferster continued the offensive onslaught, scoring twice in a nineteen second span.
After taking it on the chin in the opening 20 minutes, the Cougars found a way to run on adrenaline and started to take the game over.
Following a Drew Englot holding the stick penalty, PG’s vaunted power-play woke up as Chase Wheatcroft parked himself into the Blazers slot and fired home a one-time blast set up by Koehn Ziemmer.
Three minutes later, the Cats got some much-needed offense from an unlikely source as newcomer Ross Stanley joined a 3-on-2 rush into Kamloops territory and was the beneficiary of a Caden Brown feed, slipping it past a sprawled out Dylan Ernst, cutting the deficit to 4-2.
Following a timeout by Blazers head coach Shaun Clouston, Dylan Sydor roared right back, cashing home a sharp-angled pass by Matthew Seminoff, to restore the three-goal advantage.
However, with their backs against the wall, the Cougars dug deep and put forward a masterful third period.
Wheatcroft, outwaited a pair of Blazer defenders and located Riley Heidt who wired home a one-time shot into the yawning cage past Ernst, making it 5-3.
Wiley Riley!@PGCougars | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/56Ie5tQU1c
— The WHL (@TheWHL) December 17, 2022
Wheatcroft again worked his offensive magic, this time setting up rookie defenceman Tyson Buczkowski who tucked the loose puck inside the post for his first-ever WHL goal.
At the 14:50 mark, Carlin Dezainde sealed the puck off the boards and into the possession of Jaxsen Wiebe who let a one-time blast go finding Blake Eastman flanked out on top of the Kamloops crease and shoveling home the loose puck past Ernst.
But, in overtime, the Cougars would come up snakebit. Ziemmer was called for tripping, which led to the game-winning power-play goal by Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Fraser Minten who went top shelf past Tyler Brennan.
“I thought it was a real momentum game. I thought we had lots of it early and then in the second period that started to change and in the third it was all Cougars. I thought we were hanging on and starting to panic a little. When they reunited the top line, the Cougars looked really dangerous but we were able to get a save – we will take the win and regroup,” added Clouston.
Brennan stopped 23 of 26 Kamloops shots in relief of Young who was pulled in the first period after allowing a trio of goals on just nine shots.
Kamloops connected on the power-play twice and also dominated in the faceoff dot winning 47 out of 65 draws.
The Blazers improve to 17-6-3-2, extending their BC Division lead to nine points over the Cougars (14-15-1-0), who are winless in their last six games going 0-4-2-0 in the process.
Kamloops was without Logan Stankoven and Caiden Bankier who are both away at the World Juniors with Team Canada. The Cougars meanwhile were without the services of Cole Dubinsky, Ondrej Becher (World Juniors), Viliam Kmec, and Ephram McNutt.
Both teams play again tonight (Saturday) in the Teddy Bear and Toque Toss game. Puck drop is at 6pm from CN Centre.
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