Now that he's the all-time winningest goaltender in the history of the Prince George Cougars, Ty Edmonds can take a breather.
The 20-year-old netminder finally has the record all to himself after the Cougars handily defeated the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings 4-1 Friday night at CN Centre.
Frustrated in his previous six attempts to eclipse the mark of 95 wins set by Scott Myers in 2000, Edmonds had a relatively easy night in the Cougars' crease, making 19 saves to pick up his 27th win of the season and 96th of his four-year Western Hockey League career.
"It was kind of a surreal feeling but the team did all the work tonight," said Edmonds. "It's been a hard stretch for us and we had a hard week but we really connected as a team and it really showed tonight that when we play our best no one can play with us."
Edmonds admitted the record chase has been a bit of distraction and the Winnipeg native is relieved it's now behind him.
"It was something I didn't like to speak much of and it seemed like every corner I turned someone was asking me about it and it was tough and I'm happy it's done now and we can move on and push our way to playoffs," said Edmonds.
Along with Edmonds, the Cougars have done a lot of soul-searching the past few weeks while losing seven of their first nine games in February. They've been a frustrated crew, watching their once-healthy lead over the Kamloops Blazers atop the B.C. Division standings dwindle down to just one point heading into Friday's game.
The Cougars shot to the head of the class on the first day of the season and in their 63rd game of a 72-game schedule they showed their home crowd of 4,040 they're not willing to give that division lead up. They dominated a young and rebuilding Oil Kings squad which has 16 players who are 17 or younger.
Predictably, after averaging less than two goals scored in their last six games, the Cougars showed a great deal of urgency on offence to start the game and were rewarded with an early 2-0 lead. Colby McAuley got them started, taking advantage of a bad Edmonton line change to break in alone into the offensive zone to set up Jansen Harkins for an easy tap-in from the side of the net.
Nikita Popugaev added to the total seven minutes in with his 26th of the season off a quick rebound after Jesse Gabrielle took the shot from the top of the circle. Gabrielle made it a 3-0 count with the only goal of the second period while the Cougars were on the penalty kill. The 19-year-old Boston Bruins prospect chipped the puck ahead to Jared Bethune to set up a 2-on-1 break and Bethune dished the puck to his linemate, who finished with a backhand deke for his 27th goal.
The snakebitten Cougars' power play, ranked 20th out of 22 teams, continued to have problems scoring, going 0-for-5, but it wasn't due to a lack of chances. They moved the puck well and held the offensive zone for most of their time with the extra skater but couldn't get the puck past goalie Josh Dechaine, without question the best Oil King in Friday's game.
The Oil Kings got their only goal on Edmonds after Gabrielle was penalized for an undisciplined act when he put on the brakes and kicked up snow-shower into the face of Dechaine. On the ensuing power play, 17-year-old Trey Fix-Wolanski scored his team-leading 21st goal on a hard slapper that sailed high into the net.
Cougars pointman Josh Anderson made up for that 21 seconds later, drilling the puck from the face-off circle for his second of the season. Anderson's other goal came Jan. 28 in Edmonton when he capped the scoring an 11-3 Cats' win.
The Cougars got some help Friday from the Kelowna Rockets, who defeated the Blazers 8-2 in Kamloops. That leaves the Cougars (39-19-3-2) three points clear of the second-place Blazers in the standings. Each team has nine games left, four of which will be against each other. The Oil Kings (20-37-4-1) remained fifth in the Central Division
The Cougars and Oil Kings meet again tonight (7 p.m.) at CN Centre.
