As advertised.
That’s the best way to sum up the WHL’s early-season candidate for game of the year.
In a game, that had ejections, emotions and numerous offensive momentum swings, the Prince George Cougars stayed cool under pressure and found a way to tame a species often viewed as the king of the jungle.
A trio of late third-period goals from Hudson Thornton, Bauer Dumanski and Terik Parascak uplifted the Cougars to a thrilling 7-5 victory Sunday over the Medicine Hat Tigers in front of a boisterous crowd of 5,628 fans at CN Centre.
“I thought it was a great hockey game. There were two really good teams going at it. They have a lot of skill, we have a lot of skill, it was physical with a lot of penalties. It was an exciting game where we ended up on top,” added Mark Lamb, Cougars head coach and general manager.
For a team that only comes to BC’s northern capital every two years, the early evening start between the two sides resembled a classic 12-round boxing match where the animosity was palpable right from the opening puck drop.
The first wave of emotion came at 12:46 of the first period where Medicine Hat forward Oasiz Wiesblatt bowled over Cougars netminder Ty Young drawing a crowd in front of the crease.
Four minutes later, a Shane Smith hit on Riley Heidt, drew the ire of newly acquired Cougars forward Matteo Danis who dropped the gloves with the Tiger but received an instigator penalty in addition to his fighting major.
Chetwynd product and Tigers draft-eligible power-forward Cayden Lindstrom introduced himself in the clash of Titans, tucking home a Wiesblatt point shot past Ty Young, for a 1-0 lead.
The snowball seemed toll further down the hill for PG dealing with its first major bout of adversity where Zac Funk was handed a five-minute major for checking to the head along with a roughing minor after what looked to be a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Medicine Hat blueliner Rhett Parsons.
With the crowd showering the two-man officiating crew of Bryan Bourdon and Brody McGrath with boos, the Cougars used it as fuel to bring the raucous fanbase back to its feet.
While on the man-advantage, Cougars star rookie Teric Parascak finished off a cross-ice feed from Heidt to even the score at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Like a pair of heavyweight prize fighters, the Tigers and Cougars went punch for punch in the second.
Hunter St. Martin deflected a hard slap shot from Medicine Hat rookie prodigy Gavin McKenna past Young for a 2-1 lead.
However, PG didn’t stay on the mat for long, as Czech import Ondrej Becher filled in admirably in Funk’s absence developing a shooter’s mindset.
A nifty backhand from the 19-year-old handcuffing Tigers netminder Evan May put the hosts on even terms once again.
Like a dog on a bone, the Cougars continued its offensive onslaught on the Tigers as a smart feed from Tyson Buczkowski found Koehn Ziemmer who undressed Bogdans Hodass at the visitor blueline before distributing to Heidt for a 3-2 lead.
🎥 HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT 🎥
Koehn Ziemmer is a wizard. Riley Heidt’s face says it all. 😲#WHLHoN | @PGCougars@LAKings | @mnwild pic.twitter.com/2nPhxr7vkD
— The WHL (@TheWHL) October 23, 2023
A slashing call on Smith put PG’s vaunted power-play back on the ice, where Becher made them pay dearly, tipping home a one-time blast from the point by Thornton making it 4-2.
“One thing about Becher is that he can do it all,” added Lamb. “He is a 200-foot player who can play the bumper spot on the power-play. We have a lot of guys who can play that spot and he’s excellent.’
Bet y’all thought the first one was going in 😇 https://t.co/qRzGE10fbb pic.twitter.com/Ch3TFMRGFw
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 23, 2023
In the middle of all that madness was an exchange between Tigers forward Brayden Boehm and Cats blueliner Bauer Dumanski, where it looked on video replay, Boehm connected with a sharp uppercut before both collided into the boards.
PG rookie Nicholas McLennan took exception to the contact and drew coincidental penalties.
Prior to the buzzer, Medicine Hat received an uplifting goal from Parsons whose hard blast fooled Young and went past him on the glove side.
In third, the quick-strike offense from the visitors from the Gas City proved lethal lighting the lamp twice in a span of 73 seconds.
A disastrous shift by Cats rookie forward Hunter Laing, which culminated in two failed clearing attempts allowed Smith to rifle a shot from inside the blueline to even score at 4-4.
Lindstrom, who had approximately 20 friends and family in the stands making the trip from nearby Chetwynd captured the angle on Buczkowski in transition, potting his second of the game on a backhand through the wickets of Young.
Cool and composed under pressure, the tenacious forecheck of the Cougars resulted in a delay of game penalty on Tigers blueliner Josh van Mulligan who flipped the puck over the glass.
This led to a history-making moment for Thornton, whose wrist shot not only past May, but put him first place all-time in the Cougars record books for most power-play goals by a defenseman with 20.
This is the moment Hudson Thornton became the Cougars’ all-time leader in powerplay goals scored by a defenceman.
It couldn’t have come at a better time. https://t.co/Qyp0CI2Bga pic.twitter.com/NJnMqL5KtG
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 23, 2023
Not long after, with the Cougars once again buzzing, a fanned one-time by Viliam Kmec worked in his favour as Dumanski blasted the puck on a beaten May for a 6-5 edge.
Bauer’s first of the season had this place ROCKING 🤩 https://t.co/PK9RjIegOl pic.twitter.com/NE7DrijUgo
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 23, 2023
While head coaches traditionally don’t like the high-scoring box scores, Lamb stated post-game you often have to roll with the punches in those situations.
“They happen. You got to try and win them and that is exactly what we did, our power-play came through in the end, they had a couple as well. It was just a great hockey game.”
“We have a lot of character in that room. They (the players) don’t really get fazed – we know we can come back – we have done it numerous times. A lot of the guys hung in there, we knew the bench was tired being short a few guys going two lines the last half of the game.”
Medicine Hat head coach Willie Desjardins pulled May in favour of the extra-attacker but to no avail as Parascak lifted the puck into the yawning cage delivering the knockout blow.
Special teams proved crucial in this one as PG went 3-for-6 on the power-play while Medicine Hat was 2-for-4.
The Cougars outshot the Tigers 32-28.
In addition, this was the first time PG beat Medicine Hat at home since January 15th of 2006.
To give you some context as to how long ago that was, let me offer a quick history lesson in Canadian pop culture.
Tigers rookie prodigy Gavin McKenna was born 704 days later.
Laffy Taffy was Billboard #1 on the music charts.
Brokeback Mountain was in movie theatres and Stephen Harper was elected as Canadian Prime Minister eight days later.
Heidt had a game-high five points (one goal, four assists) while Becher and Parascak had three points each, both notching a pair of goals.
Prince George improves to 9-3-0-0 on the season and will embark on a challenging road trip through the Eastern Division, which starts Saturday in Moose Jaw against the Warriors (7-5-0-0).
“We are tired right now; we need a day off. We will have a good day on the bus and then go halfway. We’ll go to Edmonton, stay overnight and practice there and then on Thursday, we’ll go to Regina have a practice on Friday. We’ll be there, rested and have lots of practice.” said Lamb.
Medicine Hat (7-3-1-0) on the other hand, wraps up a lengthy BC Division Road swing where they went 3-2.
“They have a good team. We knew that going in, they did a good job as they lost two pretty good forwards and still found a way to win. They are quick and hard to handle – it’s a good sign for them as they never give up.” said Willie Desjardins post-game regarding the Cougars effort.
“We took too many penalties. We are not beating a team like that when you take that many. They have a good team – I thought we beat ourselves in some ways but whenever they had a chance, they have so much speed and skill they capitalized on it.”
To cap it all off, it was the back half of Community Heroes weekend, which involved a Mega 50/50 jackpot. The final tally was $160,935, and the winning portion of it was claimed.
The rest will support RCMP Victim Services, Spirit of the North Health Care Foundation and the Firefighter’s Charitable Society.
The winning number was M-6225198.
What. a. night. 😮💨
We are loading up the bus and headed east with a 9-3-0-0 record.#ForTheNorth . #WHL pic.twitter.com/pzvU1gKweC
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 23, 2023