There’s a reason they call him Big Game Bauer.
Bauer Dumanski scored the goal that gave the Prince George Cougars a 4-3 overtime win over the Seattle Thunderbirds Saturday night.
“I think what’s important when you stand back and look at it, is we lost two in a row, and our penalty kill was leaking last night and gave up two goals,” said Associate Coach Jim Playfair on the post game show on 94.3 the Goat.
“We really felt it was important to get our defending game back in order, to get our special teams back in order and certainly to stop the slide, and we did all those things tonight.”
Kayden Lemire found the back of the net to open the scoring early, just 42 seconds into the game.
Kooper Gizowski picked up an assist on the goal to extend his point streak to 14 games. However, he left the game at some point in the second period.
“He was dealing with something that we just felt was better to start getting ahead of it now and the longer it went maybe the worse it became,” Playfair said.
“We felt that now would be a good time to get him out, start treatment, get him rested up for whenever he can play again. It’s nothing that should keep him out too long, but we’ll see where he is tomorrow morning.”
After Lemire broke the ice, Seattle scored the next three, with Antonio Martorana, Brayden Holberton and Tai Riley putting the puck past Josh Ravensbergen.
It was a busy night in net for the San Jose Sharks prospect, as he faced 42 shots and made 39 saves.
“I think when Josh is playing the way he can, he’s such a stable, big, smart goaltender,” Playfair said.
“He’s just maturing in front of our eyes as you watch him play the game, and I think he understands his role, I think he’s simplified his game and I think he’s done a good job of trying to look through traffic and find pucks.”
Late in the second, Dmitri brought the Cougars within one, taking a loose puck in front of the Seattle net and putting it past Marek Sklenicka.
Carson Carels tied it in the third after taking the pass from Corbin Vaughan and playing a little pinball off a defender’s skate.
The box score is here.
The Cougars (9-5-0-0) are on top of the WHL’s BC Division and are second in the Western Conference.
The WHL standings are here.
The Cougars hit the halfway point of the six game road trip this afternoon against the Vancouver Giants (4:00 p.m.)
The full Cougars schedule is here.
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