The Prince George Cougars are back in the win column.
The Cougars put to an end their four-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Tri-City Americans, Saturday at the CN Centre.
Craig Armstrong, Koehn Ziemmer, Ethan Samson, and Connor Bowie provided the offence.
Taylor Gauthier was stellar between the pipes, as he made 29 saves and picked up his third win of the season.
Unlike their 4-3 loss Friday to the Americans, the Cougars didn’t have an issue getting off to a good start Saturday, as they went up 1-0 three minutes into the game. Riley Heidt spotted Armstrong on a two-on-one rush, and he buried it through the five-hole at 3:17 to give Prince George an early lead.
The Cougars held that 1-0 lead into the third period before a flurry of goals. First, Ziemmer doubled his team’s lead as he capitalized on a gaffe by Tri-City goaltender Tomas Suchanek. Suchanek was slow to play the puck at the side of his net and Ziemmer swooped in and poked it across the line at 3:26.
Ethan Ernst pulled the Americans within a goal at 10:22 of the third to make it 2-1, but Prince George answered, and quickly. After the Cougars had a goal disallowed, Samson and Bowie combined to score twice in 17 seconds to put the home team up 4-1.
First, Samson hammered a point-shot off the post and past Suchanek at 16:17. Then, on the next shift, it was Bowie cleaning up a rebound after a good net drive by Fischer O’Brien. Bowie’s goal made it 4-1 at 16:30.
Jake Sloan had a late reply for the Americans at 18:23 but it wasn’t enough, as the Cougars earned the weekend split.
Game Notes: Cougar forward Jonny Hooker left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Ethan Samson had two points (1-1-2) on the night he played his 100th career WHL regular season game. The Cougars finish the six-game home stand with a 2-4-0-0 record. The Cougars improved their home record to 5-6-0-0.
GAME SUMMARY
Scoring
Cougars: Craig Armstrong, Koehn Ziemmer, Ethan Samson, Connor Bowie
Americans: Ethan Ernst, Jake Sloan
Goaltending
Cougars: Taylor Gauthier (W,3-4-0) 60:00, 29 saves, 31 shots Americans: Tomas Suchanek (L,1-1-0), 56:48, 32 saves, 36 shots
Power play
Cougars: 0-3; Americans: 0-3
Shots
Cougars: 18-9-9--36 Americans: 9-12-10--31
Three stars: 1) Koehn Ziemmer 2) Taylor Gauthier 3) Ethan Samson
Attendance: 2,019.
Next game: The Cougars (7-10-0-0) hit the road for six straight games, starting on Nov. 27th against the Kelowna Rockets. Fans can listen to that game on 94.3 The GOAT, or they can watch on CHL TV.
