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Prince George Cougars' big win against Giants courtesy of Jonny Hooker's four-point night

Double-up 6-3 final saw six different goal-scorers from the Cats
Kyle Balzer
Kyle Balzer

Jonny Hooker was the X-factor in the Prince George Cougars' first win against Vancouver in the 2020-21 season.

One goal and three assists from the Winnipeg, Man. product aided the Cats to the 6-3 victory this evening (April 10), their second of the B.C. Division hub campaign.

This was Hooker's second consecutive multi-point performance, the fifth of his WHL career, for a total of six points in two nights, and now leads the team with seven points in six games.

The 19-year-old scored two goals in Prince George's 3-2 overtime setback to Victoria on Tuesday (April 6).

Hooker was also named the CHL Player of the Night, a daily nationwide honour, and the WHL's Second Star of the Night.

Goaltender Tyler Brennan had another busy night against a tough, talented Giants club, stopping 26 of 29 shots for his second win of the year.

After finishing with a 2.16 goals-against average, a .933 save percentage and one shutout, he now takes off with Hockey Canada to Texas to begin quarantining ahead of the 2021 IIHF Under-18 World Hockey Championships, leaving netminding duties to Taylor Gauthier and Ty Young.

Ethan Browne had the only other multi-point effort for the Cougars in adding an assist to Hooker's late second-period marker while on a power-play.

His goal at 8:43 of the opening frame ended a shut-out streak for Vancouver's Trent Miner at 234:31, thanks a fortunate rebound of the puck to his right side and a backhand to the empty cage.

That tied up the tilt at 1-1 before the G-men got one back four minutes later for the 2-1 lead.

Koehn Ziemmer tipped in a shot from Keaton Dowhaniuk to tie it up with 34 seconds left in the period and a 2-2 score at intermission.

Hudson Thornton, in his WHL debut, took a penalty early in the second stanza, but it was backed up by Craig Armstrong by scoring Prince George's first shorthanded goal for the 3-2 lead. It was named a hub Highlight of the Night by the league.

The Cougars' first pick of the 2018 WHL Draft notched his first of 2020-21 by stealing the puck in the neutral zone, charging up ice and scoring on his backhand past Miner.

Hooker was credited with an assist and later potted his 4-2 goal with five seconds left in the middle period.

At the 9:55 mark of the third, Prince George reached a 5-2 cushion, courtesy of rookie-defenceman Thornton on a seeing-eye shot from the left face-off circle for his first career WHL goal.

Vancouver cut the lead to 5-3 just 80 seconds later to stay in the game, pulling the netminder in the final minutes for a last-chance effort.

Fort St. John's Connor Bowie sealed the deal with an empty-net goal, his team-leading fourth of the season, and resulting in a 6-3 slaying of the Giants.

In total, 11 of 18 Cougars skaters got on the scoresheet.

With the win, they improve to a record of 2-2-1-1 on the 24-game B.C. Division hub schedule.

Prince George and Vancouver mirrored each other in shots on goal, 29 apiece, and power-play ratios, each scoring one on four attempts throughout regulation.

The Cougars will share the ice with the Vancouver Giants once again on Monday (April 12) with Prince George as the designated home team.

Game time is 7 p.m. that evening at the Sandman Centre.

This game is set to be the last re-scheduled contest for the Cats before the Kelowna Rockets return to team activities after enduring a 14-day COVID-19 suspension formally ending on Tuesday (April 13).