If you’re playing against the Prince George Cougars, it’s probably a good idea to stay out of the penalty box.
The Kelowna Rockets found that out the hard way as the Cats took the 6-2 win in front of 3,454 fans at Prospera Place last night. (Wednesday)
The Cougars scored four powerplay goals on seven attempts with the man advantage.
“When the powerplay is humming like it is, when you make another team pay for taking penalties against you, boy, it makes you really hard to play against, and we did that tonight,” said Cougars Associate Coach Josh Dixon on the last night’s post-game show on 94.3 The Goat.
The deadly first unit contributed three of those goals, with Koehn Ziemmer, Ethan Samson and Chase Wheatcroft scoring.
Tricky tricky tricky ðŸ¤#NHLDraft https://t.co/zIwcmOihOH pic.twitter.com/JxOTEb9rcq
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 9, 2023
Riley Heidt assisted on all three of those goals to bring his total to 60 assists on the season.
That surpasses the Cougars’ single season assist record of 59 set by Jansen Harkins in the 2014-15 season.
All time Prince George Cougars single-season assist leaders:
1. Riley Heidt: 60 – 2022-23, 60 games played.
2. Jansen Harkins: 59 – 2014-15, 70 games played.#NHLDraft https://t.co/2qJipejo6j pic.twitter.com/lWPjQvr19q— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 9, 2023
“The puck sometimes, he has it on a string and tonight was another one of those nights,” Dixon said.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s always the case with really good offensive players, the puck seems to find them, and every time he’s in the offensive zone the puck seems to find him, he finds the puck and then he finds the open guys and that’s been the case for him last year and all this year to another level.”
Ondrej Becher also scored on the powerplay, while Zac Funk and Cayden Glover added even-strength markers.
The full box score can be found here.
The Cougars (31-24-5-0) sit fourth in the WHL’s Western Conference, four points ahead of both the Everett Silvertips (30-27-2-1) and the Tri-City Americans (28-25-5-2).
The full WHL standings can be found here.
The Cougars will head to Victoria for two matchups Friday and Saturday against the Royals (15-39-6-1) as their four-game road trip continues.
The full Cougars schedule can be found here.