Brendan Guhle’s second goal of the night was too late to get the fur flying on Teddy Bear Toss Night but it left the Prince George Cougars and their fans with a warm and fuzzy feeling.
In a wild, thoroughly entertaining roller-coaster ride of a hockey game Saturday in front of a season-high CN Centre crowd of 5,775, Guhle provided a storybook ending in a 6-4 win against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Seattle forward Keegan Kolesar had just knotted the score 4-4 with the goalie on the bench. With overtime looming, Guhle took a pass from Jansen Harkins at his own blueline and kicked in the afterburners.
Just back from a week-long stint in the NHL playing a regular shift for the Buffalo Sabres, Guhle went for the deke on defenceman Ethan Bear, who tried for the poke check. But the puck deflected off Bear’s stick and through the legs of goalie Rylan Toth into the net.
“I just saw an opportunity there so I just jumped in and Jansen gave me a great pass and I got lucky in front of the net, but I’m not complaining,” said Guhle.
Guhle’s second goal of the game and fifth in five games since joining the Cougars in a trade from Prince Albert came with just 12.3 seconds left and the Cougars were on their way to the victory. But not before Josh Curtis, the Cougars’ teddy bear triggerman in the second period, gave Cats fans one more reason to cheer.
Curtis gained the puck off the faceoff, chipped it through the defence and with four seconds left scored into the empty net.
The Cougars (22-8-2-0, first in B.C. Division) avenged their one-goal loss Friday to the T-birds (16-11-2-1), who dropped to fourth in the WHL’s U.S. Division.
In his brief 42-game WHL career with the Cougars, Curtis has a grand total of five goals, but you can bet he’ll never forget the two he scored Saturday. The 18-year-old from Winnipeg touched off an avalanche of flying stuffed critters from the fans in the stands when he scored the first of the game for the home side 6:22 into the second period.
Curtis missed three games with a concussion suffered Nov. 22 against Regina and hurt his shoulder in the Victoria series last weekend which forced him to miss one more game, but he’s healthy again and happy to be contributing.
“I felt pretty good out there, I really wanted to get back. It’s not a lot of fun being up in the pressbox,” said Curtis. “There was a lot of emotion after I got the first one, a lot of excitement. It took me awhile to believe I scored it. That was a really cool moment for me.”
That goal burst the dam that had been holding back both team’s offences. The teams responded with five goals in less than a five-minute stretch of the second period, which ended with the Cougars ahead 4-2.
The Cougars’ three Josh’s – Curtis, Maser and Anderson – combined to give the Cats a 2-0 lead. Josh Anderson stripped the puck away from Donovan Neuls and Curtis fed a lead pass to Josh Maser. Playing in his first game for the Cats since being acquired in a trade from Prince Albert, the 17-year-old from Houston finished his breakaway with a backhand deke through the legs of Toth.
Twelve seconds later, Finnish import Sami Moilanen spun out of the corner and beat Nick McBride with a low shot to bring Seattle within a goal of tying it.
Guhle’s booming shot from the point restored the two-goal cushion. Guhle had already dented the goalpost behind Toth earlier in the period when he unloaded on a pass sent his way by Colby McAuley. The shot for the goal ticked off the stick of Neuls before it found the corner of the net.
But the T-birds weren’t about to go away quietly and 53 seconds later Moilanen tucked a backhand shot in under the outstretched pad of McBride. On the ensuing faceoff, the Cougars got the puck deep and Toth blocked a shot from Brogan O’Brien but couldn’t control the rebound and Brad Morrison spun and scored on a wrist shot.
Moilanen collected his third point of the game when Scott Eansor scored 7:49 into the third period to cut the Cats’ lead to 4-3. Moilanen got pinched against the boards by Guhle but managed to get the puck back to Bear, who zipped a perfect pass to Eansor for an easy tap-in.
Both goalies got tested by quality shots in a back-and-forth third period but it was McBride who had more of the dangerous kind sent his way. Making his first start in the Cougars net since Nov. 27, McBride held the fort, until Kolesar found a way to tie it. Eansor blocked a clearing attempt from Shane Collins at the blueline and carried the puck in deep, drawing McBride out of position before he fed the puck in front to Kolesar.
McBride made 37 saves for his fifth win of the season as the Cats were outshot 41-30.
“They were in it early and I had lots of shots in the first (period) – I wish I could have done a better job maintaining our leads and not getting scored on right after we scored,” said McBride. “But it was a fun game to play, the atmosphere was loud, the crowd was big and I’m real happy (Curtis) got the teddy bear toss goal. He’s my roommate so I get to go home with one happy camper.”
McBride played two seasons with Guhle in Prince Albert and was reminded Saturday of what the 19-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., is capable of achieving.
“I’m always happy to have him on the ice – he can always make up for mistakes and get into the rush with his speed. He’s a fantastic player to have on your team,” said McBride. “I’m shocked he’s not with the world junior team.”
The T-birds were trying for their fifth-straight win at CN Centre. Two of those wins came last season when they swept the Cougars in the first round of playoffs. Seattle defenceman Bryan Allbee, a 19-year-old Prince George native, was hoping to continue that streak in front of a nearly sold-out building.
“I was really excited to come out and see all the people out there, it makes it a lot of fun to come home,” Allbee said.
“Guhle’s obviously a very good player – he had two goals and he’s very fast. It’s pretty unfortunate, one mistake and it cost us the game with 12 seconds left. It’s a tough way to lose.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars host the Tri-City Americans Tuesday and Wednesday at CN Centre to wrap up a seven-game homestand, their longest of the season. They’ll head into the Christmas break after playing in Seattle on Friday and Spokane on Saturday.
