While it was a rainy mid-November night on the outside in Prince George, there were no shortage of fireworks inside at CN Centre.
Terik Parascak’s empty-net and hat-trick goal in the third period was more than enough to give the PG Cougars a 4-2 win over the Victoria Royals in front of 2,909 fans on Wednesday.
Both the Royals and Cougars brought their offensive prowess with them resulting in a five-goal first period.
Fans didn’t even have a chance to get settled into their seats as Parascak powered past Royals defender Odin Vauhkonen before going through the wickets of goaltender Ethan Eskit to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead 13 seconds in.
Six minutes later, the rough stuff made an appearance as Cougars forward Jack Finnegan hit Eskit who played the puck out of the crease and was chased down by Seth Fryer.
On a delayed Victoria penalty, Parascak added his second of the game by banking a shot off the skate of Royals forward Miles Cooper for a 2-0 edge.
The Washington Capitals first-round pick beat out an icing call after catching up to a Lee Shurgot dump-in. It was credited as a power-play marker.
Parascak then played the role of playmaker as he set up Brock Souch who crashed the Victoria crease, re-directing the puck past Eskit.
The Royals woke up from their early struggles and pushed back courtesy of Cooper, who’s one-time blast beat a sprawled our Josh Ravensbergen.
Victoria trimmed the deficit to 3-2 ninety seconds later as a Fryer point shot was deflected by Roan Woodward.
Similar to Tuesday, the visitors carried the play for much of the second period.
While on a power-play, the Royals had five point-blank chances to score but were turned aside by Ravensbergen who didn’t have his goal stick.
Fryer then led a 2-on-1 rush with Heath Nelson but was snuffed out by the excellent stick position of Cougars defenceman Arsenii Anisimov.
With three minutes remaining in the third period, Royals head coach James Patrick put all his cards on the table and pulled Eskit in favour of the extra-attacker, but that plan was foiled by the Parascak empty-netter.
Victoria outshot the Cougars 36-27 and went 1-for-2 on the power-play while PG was 2-for-6.
Parascak recorded a four-point night and was named the game’s first star. The 19-year-old has 30 points in 18 games since being returned by the Washington Capitals.
Not to be outdone, Ravensbergen was named the second-star thanks to his 34-save effort.
“That game was a big-time grind,” said General Manager & Head Coach Mark Lamb on the 94.3 the Goat post-game show. “We got up 3-0, kind of lucky, and we knew it wasn’t going to stay that way. They were going to come back, and that’s exactly what they did. It was a grind. Parascak was unbelievable, and so was Rav (Ravensbergen).”
PG is now five points up on Victoria (9-7-2-1) and the Penticton Vees (9-7-1-2) for first place in the B.C. Division.
The Vees fell 5-2 on Wednesday to the last-place Lethbridge Hurricanes despite outshooting them 42-19.
In other action, the Prince Albert Raiders rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a four-goal third period, skating to a 4-2 win in Oregon over the Portland Winterhawks.
The Raiders are 13-1-3-0 on the season, second-place in the Eastern Conference.
The Cougars (13-7-0-0) homestand continues Friday night at 7:00 against the (8-8-2-2) Kamloops Blazers from CN Centre.
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