The Prince George Cougars capped off their regular season with a 4-3 overtime win over the Victoria Royals.
In his last regular season game in the WHL, Koehn Ziemmer scored the winner, potting the puck into the yawning cage.
In his last career regular season game, who else but Koehn Ziemmer 🥹@LAKings | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/p2vTrtiOZJ pic.twitter.com/OV0yyvypI7
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 23, 2025
“Really nice for Ziems, last regular season game that he’s going to play in the WHL, it’s nice to score an overtime winning goal,” said Cougars Head Coach and GM Mark Lamb on the post-game show on 94.3 the Goat.
Also in his final regular season WHL game, Viliam Kmec picked up an assist on the goal.
With the 6-3 loss to Victoria on Friday, Saturday’s game was really an exhibition game.
“I really liked our start, you got to put everything in perspective right now, it wasn’t worth anything, it meant nothing, but we wanted to come out and play for the fans, we wanted to play for ourselves, we wanted to get a win, and we got habits that we want to improve on. There’s always something to play for and that’s what we talked about,” Lamb said.
The Cougars jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period off the sticks of Evan Groening and Aiden Foster.
If at first you don’t succeed…@CarlsJrCA https://t.co/ki4oeaVpU5 pic.twitter.com/5CrzRUuEWU
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 23, 2025
Foster tips home his 11th of the season!#NHLDraft | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/EcCc3GQHY9 pic.twitter.com/SaJSwbDlJF
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 23, 2025
Nolan Stewart cut the Cats’ lead to one shortly after Foster tipped home his goal.
Aleksey Chichkin scored his fifth of the season early in the second to restore the two goal lead.
Brandon Lisowsky scored five minutes later, and Keaton Verhoeff tied it early ion the third, paving the way for overtime.
The box score is here.
The Cougars will now turn their sights to the Portland Winterhawks for the first round of the WHL playoffs.
The battle reignites!
We face off against the Portland Winterhawks in Round One of the WHL Playoffs—a rematch of the 2024 Western Conference Championship Series!
Tickets for Games 1 & 2 are on sale NOW at https://t.co/mDqoeZUhv5! pic.twitter.com/H0ZXsYv0k0
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 22, 2025
“It’s kind of turned into a rivalry for sure, we’re looking forward to it,” Lamb said.
“It’s playoff hockey, that’s what we’re thinking about all year long. It was a long year, there was a lot of adversity, a lot of grinding, this team had to work hard to get where we’re at right now, proud of them, how they played through the regular season, but the playoffs is what it’s all about.”
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