Sixty-two shots in one game?
That’s a lot of rubber for any hockey goalie to have to handle and Tyler Brennan did his best to try to keep his Prince George Cougars in the game, but the 18-year-old netminder could only do so much to fend off the hungry Everett Silvertips.
For the second time in eight days, the Silvertips feasted off Cougar offerings and got their fill in a 6-0 victory Saturday in front of a crowd of 5,419 at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett on Saturday.
The 62 shots allowed was a season high for the Cougars, as were the 54 shots Brennan turned aside.
Jackson Berezowski, Michal Gut, Matthew Ng, Nico Huuhtanen, Ronan Seeley and Austin Roest were the goalscorers. Defencemen Olen Zellweger and Dylan Anderson each drew two assists. Everett scored twice in each period.
“They play at such a high pace, they check so well, they transition the puck extremely well and that was really the case in the first period where, very quickly, when we mismanaged the puck they get it and throw it right back at us right off the rush,” said Cougars associate coach Josh Dixon.
Koen MacInnes made 24 saves for his third shutout of the season.
The lopsided loss ended the Cougars’ six-game tour of the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division and they finished with just three of a possible 12 points. They were outscored a combined 26-8 in the six games and posted a 1-4-1-0 record on the trip. Prince George is 3-9-2-0 against U.S. Division opponents this season and they lost all four games in the season series against Everett. The Silvertips beat the 6-2 on Jan. 29, the second game of the trip.
“This is the best team right now in our conference and they’ve been a top CHL team all season long and you look at the winning this organization has been through and the expectations,” said Dixon. “The little habits you take away playing this team - how well and how intense they warm up on the ice and the speed with which they play the game with the puck and how well they check and how difficult they are to play against without the puck. There are so many little areas from these two games we can take and hopefully apply to our own game.
“We’ve had a firsthand look, twice within a week, what a top team in the country looks like and where we want to get to.”
The Cats were without the services of injured defencemen Jonas Brondberg and Aiden Reeves, and forwards Cayden Glover and Fischer O’Brien.
The Silvertips (32-7-2-2) continue to lead the Western Conference, while the Cougars (18-23-2-1) remained sixth in the conference standings. They still hold a four-point bulge over the seventh-place Vancouver Giants, who lost their sixth-straight game Saturday, falling 7-2 on the road in Seattle. The Cats host the Giants Friday in the first of a two-game set at CN Centre.
