All season; the Prince George Cougars managed to keep the plane in the air minus some recent turbulence.
They’ll likely have to do that for quite a bit longer as they lost one of their heat seeking missiles in a feisty 8-3 victory over the Swift Current Broncos on Tuesday in front of 2,918 fans at CN Centre.
In his brief return from a four-game suspension, WHL bad-boy Corbin Vaughan went exit stage left following five-minute majors for charging and fighting along with a game misconduct after torpedoing Broncos forward Brady Birnie just as he left the penalty box.
Vaughan dropped the gloves with Hunter Mayo after contact was made.
“It’s really tough. I feel bad for the kid. He is trying to play the game, he has a target on his back, and we will see what happens. I don’t what is going to happen to him but I feel bad. He is a good hockey player and we need him,” said Mark Lamb, Cougars head coach and general manager.
Heidt rings the dinner bell 🍕🍕🍕@mnwild | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/5sw0YK7W8Q pic.twitter.com/a0KnFnClbN
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 29, 2025
That lit the spark for what would be a rough night at the good ole’ hockey game as both teams turned up the aggressor meter in the final two periods.
Lost in all of this, was a highly entertaining start to the contest where the Cougars found themselves up 3-2 after the opening 20 minutes.
Bauer Dumanski opened the scoring 22 seconds in as his bloop shot went off a Broncos stick and over the head of goaltender Reid Dyck.
Following a healthy ovation for former Cats forward and Swift Current overager Carlin Dezainde – the UCONN commit quickly reminded the fans on what he is still capable of re-directing a Mayo point blast past Josh Ravensbergen to even the score at 1-1.
The firewagon hockey continued three minutes later as Jett Lajoie got his nose dirty in front of the Bronco crease, striking home a Borya Valis feed where he blew into the offensive zone, wrapped around the net and found the sophmore forward.
Koehn Ziemmer added to the PG advantage blasting home a Riley Heidt feed past Dyck for a 3-1 lead. The Los Angeles Kings prospect is now two goals behind Chase Witala (120) for a share atop the franchise lead for goals scored.
Heidt finds Ziemmer on a trick play to extend the lead!@mnwild | @LAKings | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/u2XGjrzEGg pic.twitter.com/hGdniTkjah
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 29, 2025
However, Dezainde wasn’t done torching his old mates slithering into the Cougars zone and firing a slap shot over the glove of Ravensbergen for his second of the contest.
The 20-year-old from Calgary was dealt to Speedy Creek along with a 9th rounder in October for Van Eger, a 2025 2nd round pick and a 2027 4th round selection.
Dezainde dawned the Cougar colours for 182 games after being acquired in a three-way trade involving the Saskatoon Blades and Medicine Hat Tigers.
The 20-year-old along with Cayden Glover came from the Gas City along with three draft picks in the December 2021 transaction.
Two of those draft picks turned out to be Dermot Johnson and Patrick Sopiarz.
Going the other way was Kyren Gronick (Saskatoon) and a fifth round selection in 2025 (Medicine Hat).
Following a frustrating start to the game, Terik Parascak got the fans out of their seats with an end-to-end rush that resulted in a goal to double the Cougars lead to 4-2 at 1:51 of the second period.
Heidt added insult to injury cashing in on a good sequence by Parascak and Kmec.
Tempers once again boiled over for the Broncos, after a Viliam Kmec blast made it 6-2 PG, Lajoie was in a verbal jousting match with defenceman Payton Kettles who responded with a wicked slash to the stomach.
Kettles was told to hit the showers after receiving a match penalty for attempt to injure, which is accompanied by a game misconduct.
Kmec wires one from the blue line to extend the lead!@GoldenKnights | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/LyDDOAivN4 pic.twitter.com/F4hDCNEg9u
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 29, 2025
However, it would be Swift Current who struck first shorthanded as a turnover by Ben Riche at centre ice sprung Clarke Caswell on a breakaway putting one past Ravensbergen.
Riche and Matteo Danis added singles in the third period.
Batted his own rebound out of the air? Light work for Ben Riche.@CarlsJrCA https://t.co/6DUIKFDsyG pic.twitter.com/GMLEuaCuXI
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 29, 2025
Sent down the pecking order due to the early-game hoopla, was Kmec ending the night with one goal and four assists.
The Vegas Golden Knights signed prospect is having a dream season with 44 points in 40 games.
Kmec came to the Cougars as a 17-year-old rookie from Slovakia in 2021-22 where he put up 14 points in 62 games.
His meteoric rise has been something to marvel at, putting an exclamation point on what has been a life-changing stay for the Kosice product.
“I think it has been consistency (as the key). Obviously, I had a big motivation, and I still have a big motivation for the next year, and I am just trying to keep myself disciplined throughout the year, do the things right and keep grinding every day.”
PG outshot the Broncos 36-20 and went 2-for4 on the power-play while Swift Current was 0-for-2.
The Cougars (26-15-3-2) inch within a point of the Victoria Royals (25-13-3-5) for top spot in the BC Division lead. PG’s five-game homestand continues Friday and Saturday against the Tri-City Americans (22-18-4-1).
“They are a big, heavy team. They are a real good team, and we will look at it, it’s not going to be easy as we have three in a row against them – kind of like a mini playoff series so we are looking forward to it,” added Lamb.
PG travels to Kennewick to play the Americans, Tuesday, February 4th.
Fort Saint James product and singed Utah Hockey Club prospect Tyrell Goldsmith plays for the Americans.
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