A shootout was not needed to decide it, but there was no shortage of bullets flying in the CN Centre corral when the Prince George Cougars and Everett Silvertips reloaded their sticks for a return to WHL action after the holiday break.
The Silvertips fired the mortal blow 2:15 into overtime with Alex Swetlikoff finding the target with a one-timed blast from short range to end it in a 6-5 victory Tuesday for the visitors from Washington state.
But up until that point it was still anybody’s game.
It was the only time in 29 games this season the Cougars have taken a team to overtime. They scored three times in the third period to force the issue - the first time all season they’ve come back to earn a point when trailing after two periods.
Koehn Ziemmer cued the comeback just past the one-minute mark of the third when he beat goalie Braden Holt with a high wrister for his eighth goal of the season. It was Ziemmer’s first point since lighting up the Vancouver Giants in a six-point game Dec. 15.
Ziemmer then combined with linemates Riley Heidt and Craig Armstrong on a 3-on-1 chance that ended with Heidt firing Ziemmer’s tape-to-tape pass high into the net. That gave the Cats a 5-4 lead just past the midway point of the period but it didn’t last long. Forty-two seconds later, a pivoting Niko Huuhtanen spun a shot from the circle that fooled Young and tied the game.
Huuhtanen, a Tampa Bay Lighting draft pick, finished the game with two goals and two assists, including the pass that set up Swetlikoff’s winner.
The Silvertips added yet another win to their Western Conference-leading total and they improved to 22-6-2-1 at the expense of the Cougars (13-15-1-0), who remained seventh in the conference, three points ahead of the eighth-place Victoria Royals.
Both teams showed their turkey legs coming back after a week off at Christmas and that showed in a sloppy opening period punctuated by coughed-up pucks and misfired passes which led to some early scoring chances at both ends.
The Silvertips struck first just a couple minutes in. They gained the puck off a face-off in the Cougar end and Finnish import winger Huuhtanen’s screened shot from the point found a seam through the legs of Ty Young, making his third start on the season in net for the Cats.
Blake Eastman jammed in a rebound while standing just off the post for his fourth goal and fifth point in five games to tie it up at 6:13 mark, and five minutes later Ethan Samson gave Prince George the lead, scoring the Cougars’ first shorthanded goal of the season. Samson seized the puck at his own blueline and with a burst of speed in his boots he got free and let a high shot go from the right circle that caught the high corner of the net in behind the blocker of Holt.
That lead lasted just 37 seconds. With Armstrong still cooling his heels in the box serving a tripping call, Swetlikoff was left alone in the slot and blasted in Jacob Wright’s feed from behind the net for his 15th goal of the season.
In the second period, a pair of Silvertips struck for their first career WHL goals. Kyan Grouette, called up for his first WHL game from the Parkland (Man.) Rangers U-18s, buried a puck fed to him by fellow 16-year-old rookie Roan Woodward. Then it was Woodward’s turn when he cruised in undetected and whacked in a pass from close range for his first in 25 games this season. That came just after Cougars killed off a 5-on-3 penalty situation that went on for 87 seconds.
The Cougars cut the gap to one late in the period on a power play. Defenceman Jaren Brinson scored his second of the season with Jonny Hooker eclipsing goalie Holt’s view of the shot from the left point.
LOOSE PUCKS: This was the start of a four-games-in-four-nights stretch for the Cougars. They’ll play the Silvertips again in the rematch Wednesday (7 p.m. start) at CN Centre, then host the Kamloops Blazers on New Year’s Eve Friday (5 p.m.), followed by a game in Kamloops on Saturday… Both teams had depleted lineups. The Silvertips had 17 skaters in the lineup while the Cats dressed 16. Everett has three players involved in the world junior championship - D Olen Zellweger (Canada), D Ronan Seeley (Canada) and C Michal Gut (Czechia), as well as head coach Dennis Williams (assistant coach for Canada). D Viliam Kmec (Slovakia) is representing the Cougars at the tournament in Edmonton/Red Deer…. None of the three players the Cats acquired this week in trades played Tuesday. On Monday they picked up 20-year-old defenceman Jonas Brandberg in the trade which sent goalie Taylor Gauthier to Portland, and also added 16-year-old forwards Cayden Glover and Carlin Dezainde Tuesday from Medicine Hat in a three-way trade which sent forward Kyren Gronick to Saskatoon.
Tuesday WHL summary
Silvertips 6 at Cougars 5 (OT)
First Period
1. Everett, Huuhtanen 14 (Gibson, Hofer) 2:11
2. Prince George, Eastman 8 (Dumanski, Bowie) 6:13
3. Prince George, Samson 6, 13:23 (sh)
4. Everett, Swetlikoff 15 (Wright, Huuhtanen) 14:00 (pp)
Penalties – Sutter EVT (hit to the head) 11:22, Armstrong PG (tripping) 13:06, EVT bench (too many men, served by Woodward) 16:44, Ziemmer PG (checking from behind) 17:18.
Second Period
5. Everett, Grouette 1 (Woodward, Gibson) 4:46
6. Everett, Woodward 1 (Roest, Anderson) 12:17
7. Prince George, Brinson 2 (Armstrong, Hooker)18:07 (pp)
Penalties –Dumanski PG (roughing) 9:16, Bowie PG (hooking) 9:49, Wright EVT (cross-checking) 16:08.
Third Period
8. Prince George, Ziemmer 8 (Armstrong, Dowhaniuk) 1:11
9. Prince George, Heidt 8 (Ziemmer) 10:40
10. Everett, Huuhtanen 15, 11:22
Penalties – None.
Overtime
11. Everett, Svetlikoff 15 (Huuhtanen) 2:15
Penalties – None.
Shots on goal by
Everett 13 9 9 2 -33
Prince George 15 14 8 0 -37
Goal – Everett, Holt(W,13-3-2-1); Prince George, Young (L,1-1-1-0)
Power plays – EVT: 1-4; PG: 1-3.
Attendance – 2,052,
Referees - Brayden Arcand, Brody McGrath; Linesmen – Caden Fanshaw, Devin Kohlhauser.
