Taylor Gauthier had his arms raised in celebration the second the buzzer sounded to end the game as his teammates jumped off the bench to come celebrate with him. Gauthier, and the rest of the Cougars, had done something no other goaltender and team has done all season and that was to keep Dylan Cozens and the Lethbridge Hurricanes off the scoresheet as the Cougars defeated the Hurricanes by a score of 2-0 on Wednesday night at CN Centre.
Mitch Kohner got Prince George on the board scoring his 8th goal of the season tipping a Filip Koffer pass past Lethbridge netminder Bryan Thomson 2:36 into the second period. Lethbridge peppered the Prince George net with pucks all night long and Gauthier stood strong making his biggest save of the night late in the third period when Hurricanes forward Dylan Cozens put a quick shot on net that the goaltender turned aside with his stick. Lethbridge was applying pressure until Cozens went to the box for holding with 2:33 left in the game. Down by one goal and missing their leading scorer, the Hurricanes could not muster what they needed to put one past the rock-solid Gauthier. With under a minute to play and Lethbridge goaltender Bryan Thomson on the bench for the extra attacker, Cougars forward Ethan Browne forced a turn-over at centre ice and skated into the Hurricanes zone with Vladislav Mikhalchuk on a 2-0. With both players skating into the slot, Browne selflessly slid the puck over to Mikhalchuk who scored his 12th goal of the season with 38 seconds left in the third to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead and that marker stood as the buzzer sounded to end the game.
Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier got the start in the net and earned the shut-out turning aside all 37 shots he faced. Hurricanes netminder Bryan Thomson got the start in net and made 18 saves on 20 shots he faced.
Attendance for the game was 1967.
The win gives the Cats a record of 18-34-4-4 and puts them 9 points back of the Seatlle Thunderbirds for the second wildcard play-off spot.
Next up for the Cougars is a pair of games on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7 against the Vancouver Giants. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. both nights at CN Centre as Prince George plays their final two regular season games at home before departing on a six-game road trip to close out their regular season.
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