Cougars’ dominance of Victoria continues with 8 goal blowout

The Prince George Cougars seem to love playing the Victoria Royals, winning 8-1 last night – now outscoring them 22-4 in three games so far this season.

However, the game did not start off looking like a blowout.

Victoria outshot the Cougars 16-12 in the first period, Tyler Brennan held strong in net making all 16 early saves, well more than half of what he would face in the full 60 minutes.

Caden Brown scored the period’s only goal to put the Cats up 1-0.

Wear a coat, it's cold outside.

This tip brought to you by Caden Brown. https://t.co/rVOoJc2v8U pic.twitter.com/bdPvF00mjs

— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) February 4, 2023

Riley Heidt would double the Cougars’ lead 27 seconds into the second period, firing home a massive rebound into a wide open net.

Victoria scored their lone goal to make it 2-1 five minutes later, shorthanded – just the third shorthanded goal the Cougars have allowed this season.

Viliam Kmec took the wind out of the Royals’ sails right away, scoring under 30 seconds later to restore the two goal lead.

From this point on the Cougars would take total control of the game, and after hitting the crossbar twice Chase Wheatcroft would finish on a stunning passing play to end the period up 4-1.

Looks like it is All-Star weekend in the CN Centre tonight too https://t.co/oX0cJBUhie pic.twitter.com/MVVy22S2xf

— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) February 4, 2023

Zac Funk, Hudson Thornton, Caden Brown, and Koehn Ziemmer would rack up the score to 8-1 in a Cougar-dominated third period where Victoria only mustered two shots on goal.

Prince George outshot Victoria 40-25 in the game, the Cougars were 3/7 on the powerplay and 3/3 killing penalties.

The statement win brings the Cougars to a 20-21-4-0 record while Victoria falls to 14-30-4-1.

Hudson Thornton, Riley Heidt and Chase Wheatcroft all tallied three points in the game.

In three games against the Royals, Thornton has 10 points – 6 of them coming in one game on November 18th.

Prince George sits alone in 6th in the Western Conference with 44 points, sitting two ahead of Vancouver and four behind Everett, having played two fewer games than both of these teams.

The Tri-City Americans, who were within two points of the Cougars on January 13th, have gone on a 10-0-3-0 run to move themselves 11 points ahead of the Cougars for fourth place in the west.

Victoria is 9th, two points behind the Kelowna Rockets, who have four games in hand.

These two teams will rematch tonight in the CN Centre for PAW Patrol night, at 6:00 where the team will wear themed jerseys that will be auctioned off for the Children’s Miracle Network.

"We're ready for a red-hot rescue!"

IT'S PAW PATROL NIGHT!

We wrap up the double header with Victoria. Did we mention there are going to be puppies?

https://t.co/1T2YDcVKmH
6:00 PM
CN Centre
@943TheGOAT
WHL Live@REMAXca • @Nickelodeon • #ForTheNorth pic.twitter.com/OBnD0uivUT

— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) February 4, 2023

For the game’s boxscore, click here.