Even young teams in the middle of a rebuild can sneak up and bite you at the most unexpected times.
Despite not starting Scott Ratzlaff in between the pipes and all-star blueliner Sawyer Mynio in transit from the World Junior Hockey Championship, the Seattle Thunderbirds clogged up the ice and skated to a 3-1 road victory on Friday over the Prince George Cougars.
After a scoreless first period, the Thunderbirds struck first at 7:10 of the second period as a Kazden Mathies shot from a sharp angle trickled through Josh Ravensbergen.
GOALS IN BACK TO BACK GAMES!
Mathies lights the lamp, Birds are on the board 1-0 with 12:48 to play in the second pic.twitter.com/MwMUDDoY0w
— Seattle Thunderbirds (@SeattleTbirds) January 4, 2025
PG came close to tying it a few minutes later as a turnover at centre ice sprung Riley Heidt on a breakaway shooting the puck through the five hole of T-Birds goalie Grayson Malinowski – as the puck slid further into the blue paint Tai Riley swept it out of harms way.
Hayden Pakkala doubled the Seattle advantage at 15:17 of the middle period poking home a loose puck after Ravensbergen misplayed the rebound following the initial shot from Kaleb Hartmann.
PG had several chances to bury a couple past Malinowski but were unable to convert on a number of turnovers inside the Seattle zone. The best chance came when Lee Shurgot took the puck, slid into the slot and feed Viliam Kmec on the back-door feed but was unable to re-direct it home.
Hand-eye mastery from Hayden Pakkala 👁️@SeattleTbirds pic.twitter.com/xRdnCJ506Z
— The WHL (@TheWHL) January 4, 2025
Borya Valis put the Cats within one with a 1:21 remaining deflecting an airborne puck past Malinowski.
Sam Charko sealed the gutsy road win with an empty-net goal.
The Cougars increased the pressure for most of the third period but were unable to solve Malinowski. His best saves came off a deflection from Terik Parascak followed by a 2-on-1 where he stoned Jett Lajoie.
Bauer Dumanski played the third period sporting a full-face shield after getting dinged up twice in the middle frame.
Corbin Vaughan, who was acquired from the Regina Pats made his home debut on the blueline – he snowed under Mathies inside the Seattle line drawing the approval of the fans in attendance.
PG (21-10-3-2) outshot Seattle (12-22-2-1) 25-20. Both teams failed to score on four combined power-plays.
Malinowski made 24 saves for Seattle in the while Ravensbergen stopped 18 of 20 Thunderbird shots.
Williams Lake product and Seattle rookie forward Colton Gerrior did not play in Friday’s contest. The rookie has seven points in 27 games.
Both teams finish off the weekend double-header tomorrow (Saturday) at 6pm from CN Centre.
In addition, PG received some bad news on the out-of-town scoreboard as the Victoria Royals defeated the Everett Silvertips in overtime 2-1.
The Royals are now two points back of the Cougars for the BC Division lead.
Tiebreaker tomorrow.#ForTheNorth . #WHL pic.twitter.com/YE7HdVKOpD
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 4, 2025
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