The goal that launched a thousand bears came with 4:32 left in the first period.
The happy triggerman was none other than Carson Carels.
The Prince George Cougars’ 16-year-old rookie defenceman is just starting out in the Western Hockey League and will no doubt score more a lot more meaningful goals in his hockey career. But that Saturday snipe he scored that triggered the stuffy avalanche from a sellout CN Centre crowd on Teddy Bear and Toque Toss Night will no doubt become a memory that lasts long well beyond his junior hockey days.
That goal lifted off a grand piano the Cougars have been carrying the past couple of weeks and they used it build their way to a 6-3 victory over the Kamloops Blazers.
The teddy bear goal was especially timely because it came with the Cougars trailing the Blazers 2-0, when they were facing the real possibility they’d have to go into the dressing room for the intermission still feeling that pressure to score.
“Obviously it was a slow start to this game but we got it going with that teddy-bear goal,” said Carels.
“It wasn’t just off my shoulders, it was off the whole team, for sure, because obviously we were all wanting it and it was good to get it out of the way.”
At the time the Cats were on a two-man power play with Blazers’ John Szabo off for interference and Ryan Michael was fingered for a double-minor for high-sticking Terik Parascak, a call that was missed by the referees, but not the linesmen.
Carels replaced Viliam Kmec and took over the left point position for the 5-on-3 and he hadn’t gone long into his shift when Koehn Ziemmer fed him the puck. He leaned into a hard slapshot and it sailed into the net, setting off the expected Beanie Baby bedlam.
“He wanted a lefty there so he could run (one-timers),” said Carels. “Koehn gave me a great pass and I just picked the corner. It was a surreal feeling for sure.”
Flames draft Hunter Laing led the Cougar cause with two goals and an assist, while Koehn Ziemmer also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists.
Jordan Keller scored twice for the Blazers. Emmitt Finnie finished with three assists.
After trailing for more than half the game, the Cougars took their first lead of the night two minutes into the third period, just as Matteo Lang was stepping out of the Kamloops penalty box.
In his 100th WHL game, Laing scored his second of the night and ninth this season, going down on one knee to put his full might into a rocket one-timer set up by Jett Lajoie.
That got the crowd chanting “We want pizza” knowing everybody in attendance - all 6,016 of them, would receive a coupon for a free pizza if and when the Cougars scored a fifth goal.
Ziemmer provided that assurance, waiting for a sliding Blazers goalie Logan Edmonstone to go down before lifting a high wrister in. Heidt added the sixth goal late in the game on a goalmouth pass while on the power play.
The win improved the Cougars’ overall record to 15-8-3-1 and coupled with Friday’s win over Regina they moved them back on top of the BC Division. They’re now 10-1-3-2 on home ice. Saturday’s game was their last at CN Centre in 2024 and it was critical for them to regain some of their swagger.
“When you look at what we’ve been going through the last two weeks it hasn’t been easy for us, but again we stuck to it and found a way to get two points,” said Cougars captain Riley Heidt, who will travel to Ottawa Monday to try to make Canada’s roster for the world junior tournament.
“We didn’t get the start we needed, down two, it was a good thing we got that goal at the end of the first. When you’re in the mud it’s hard to get out of it and it gets negative and excuses come and we just had to get out of that mentality and get more shots in traffic and they finally started to go in.”
The Blazers scored on their first shot. Just 24 seconds into the game, Finnie collected his team-leading 18th goal, fooling Josh Ravensbergen with a shot along the ice that found the far side of the net.
Keller’s deflection in front on a Kamloops power play made it 2-0 before the eight-minute mark and that set the stage for a bit more nervous tension the Cougars were hoping to avoid, especially knowing they haven’t been playing their best hockey lately.
All that was soon forgotten when Carels cashed in for his third of the season.
The teams left the ice right after to get all that fur picked up and the rest of the first period was tacked on to the second period after the flood.
Not long after play resumed, Heidt’s brilliant piece of board work to avoid the check of Layton Feist on a left wing rush started by Ravensbergen allowed him to get free with the puck in the corner to set up Aiden Foster for a high deflection into the net that tied it 2-2.
But less than a minute later, after Foster was denied on a shorthanded chance, the Blazers put together a pretty three-way pass play that restored their lead. Former Cougar Oren Shtrom drew the primary assist on that one, feeding Keller parked just off the post next to Ravensbergen.
But the Cougars scored four unanswered goals to nail down the win.
“It was good to get the win, especially on this night with the big crowd and all the supporters, it was awesome,” said Heidt. “Our group is at the point now where we shouldn’t be slumping, we’re 25, 30 games into the season and we have to figure it out for sure before Christmas happens.
“It’s been a long stretch for us and we have a big road trip here coming ahead and it’s massive to get this two-win streak in here to build some confidence for this States trip to finish it off and get good break.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Blazers came up on the bus with just one goalie – Edmonstone – because usual starter Dylan Ernst was home with the flu. Kamloops called up 17-year-old Prince George product Andrik Lygas from the Cariboo Cougars U-18s to fill in as the backup … The Cougars will play the Tri-City Americans Wednesday in Kennewick, Wash. The webcast of that game is available free on WHL Live. The Cats also visit Portland on Friday and Spokane on Saturday before returning to Canada to take on the Rockets in Kelowna on Tuesday, Dec. 17 … The Rockets got some bad news this week when C Tij Iginla had season-ending hip surgery. Iginla, drafted by Utah sixth overall in 2024, was the Rockets’ second-leading scorer this season with 14 goals and 32 points in 21 games.
