Aside from winning a WHL Championship, there isn’t much more left to accomplish for Riley Heidt.
Roughly a year after becoming the Prince George Cougars all-time leader in points (now sitting at 345), the 19-year-old Minnesota Wild prospect now has the most assists in franchise history with 236.
He surpassed Mark Morrison’s long-standing record, one that was set during the franchise’s time in Victoria (235).
Caught up in all this hoopla was a Cougars 3-2 road win against the Kelowna Rockets on Friday in front of 4,003 fans at Prospera Place.
Levi Benson put the hosts on the board first speeding in on a breakaway, capitalizing on a fall involving two Cougar defenceman.
Eight minutes later, Borya Valis evened the score at 1-1. A transition 3-on-2 rush led by Koehn Ziemmer found the 20-year-old from Colorado who made a power move to the Rockets crease, outwaiting goaltender Jake Pilon.
PG found their offensive stride in the second thanks to the man-advantage. Ziemmer zipped a cross-ice pass to Terik Parascak who snuck in behind Kelowna blueliner Carter Kowalyk, beating Pilon for a 2-1 edge.
Parascak then played the role of passer, setting the table for Heidt who fired a bullet over the shoulder of Pilon to give the Cougars a two-goal lead.
Dawson Gerwing notched the lone goal of the third period for the Rockets who outshot the Cougars 33-29. Kelowna went 1-for-3 on the power play while the Cougars were 1-for-4.
Ben Riche missed his third straight game after sustaining an upper-body injury against Tri-City. Corbin Vaughan was also serving the fifth game of his ten-game suspension by the WHL’s rules’ committee.
Draft eligible goalie Josh Ravensbergen made 31 saves in the win for PG (29-15-4-2).
Unfortunately, the Cougars didn’t receive any help from the scoreboard as the Victoria Royals romped the Tri-City Americans 9-0. PG remains four points back of the division lead.
The Cougars are back in action tonight (Saturday) against the Kamloops Blazers (18-27-4-0). Puck drop is at 6pm.
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