Now that’s performance!
The Prince George Cougars (who moved from Victoria 30 years ago) had their best regular season ever and the stats over 68 games back that up.
They came first in the regular season in the WHL Western Conference for the first time and earned their second B.C. Division title (first was in 2016-17).
The numbers below will be difficult to top.
- Most wins by a Prince George Cougars (49)
- Most points by a Prince George Cougars team (102)
- Longest point streak by a Prince George Cougars team (19)
- Most goals by a Prince George Cougars team (316)
- Fewest Goals against (187) *not including shortened 2020-2021 season
- Best goal-differential by a Prince George Cougars team (129)
- Best combined special teams performance by a Prince George Cougars team (2nd in league power play and 2nd in league penalty kill).
In addition, several Cougars saw incredible individual success on the ice as well:
- Zac Funk: Most points in a season by a Prince George Cougar (123) (Riley Heidt (117) also surpassed the previous mark of 112 set by Quinn Hancock in 1997-98)
This one is for the history books!
Zac Funk collects his 113th point of the season to sit atop the @PGCougars‘ single-season scoring record!@Capitals | #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/ArPBMP9RzX
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 17, 2024
- Zac Funk: Most goals in a season by a Prince George Cougar (67) shattering the old mark of 54 set by Hancock in 97-98.
- Zac Funk: Best +/- in a single season among Prince George Cougars (+56), Terik Parascak (+49), Viliam Kmec (39), Ondrej Becher (+38), Bauer Dumanski (+36) and Riley Heidt (+34) each surpassed the previous mark of +31.
- Zac Funk: Most powerplay goals in a single-season by a Prince George Cougar. (31)
- Riley Heidt: Became the Prince George Cougars all-time points leader (280)
- Riley Heidt: Became the Prince George Cougars all-time assists leader (195)
- Riley Heidt: Most assists in a single season by a Prince George Cougar (80)
THIS IS HEIDT’S HOUSE https://t.co/oW3shcTfvJ pic.twitter.com/nNLEppG6n0
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 24, 2024
- Hudson Thornton: Became the Prince George Cougars all-time points leader among defencemen (196)
- Hudson Thornton: Tied the mark he set last season for points by a defenceman in a single season (74)
THORNTON SAYS GOODNIGHT pic.twitter.com/B9dlVs7qUH
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 14, 2024
- Terik Parascak: Most points by a Prince George Cougars Rookie (105)
- Ondrej Becher: Most points by a Prince George Cougars import player in a single season (96)
- Ondrej Becher: Most all-time points by a Prince George Cougars import player (134). (Becher also ended the regular season on a 19-game point streak
- Josh Ravensbergen: Tied for most shutouts in a single season by a Prince George Cougar (6)
- Terik Parascak: Five WHL Rookie of the Week selections, one WHL Player of the Week selection, two WHL Rookie of the Month selections.
THE ROOKIE MAKES IT RAIN!🧸
Terik Parascak has the @PGCougars‘ 2023 Teddy Bear Toss goal!#NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/UPC8itq3Vu
— The WHL (@TheWHL) December 10, 2023
- Riley Heidt: One WHL Player of the Week selection, one WHL Player of the Month selection.
- Zac Funk: One WHL Player of the Week selection, one WHL Player of the Month selection.
- Josh Ravensbergen: One WHL Rookie of the Week selection, two WHL Goalie of the Week selections.
- Koehn Ziemmer: One WHL Player of the Week selection.
- Hunter Laing: One WHL Rookie of the Week selection.
- The Cougars now look for their best-ever playoff run. For that to happen they would need to win three rounds. They have reached the Western Conference final on three occasions (1997, 2000 and 2007). The Cougars play the 8th-seeded Spokane Chiefs in a best-of-seven series in a 2-3-2 format that begins this weekend. (As of 6 pm Tuesday (March 26th) there are just 1,200 tickets left for the Friday opener and 1,700 for the Saturday game against the Chiefs)
“We earned it and we deserved it”
GM & HC Mark Lamb chats about the final weekend of the season and the playoffs which begins Friday at the CN Centre.#PGWhiteOut • #ForTheNorth pic.twitter.com/S1ZMo5BPuh
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 25, 2024
They split their season series, it’s only fitting the @PGCougars and @spokanechiefs battle it out in Round One of the 2024 #WHLPlayoffs presented by Nutrien. pic.twitter.com/5eUYKZM2SD
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 24, 2024
–With files from Hartley Miller and Will Peters