Ty Edmonds was not fit to be tied.
He wanted his Prince George Cougars to notch their first home-ice win of 2016 and picked a good time to deliver one of his best netminding performances of the season.
From start to finish in Friday's WHL game at CN Centre, Edmonds was unbeatable, making 41 saves to record his third shutout of the season in a 1-0 win over the Victoria Royals in front of 2,717 witnesses.
In a highly-entertaining clash of two of the top teams in the league trying to seize short-term bragging rights for second place in the B.C. Division, the game remained scoreless until the early stages of the third period.
Jesse Gabrielle notched the golden goal 1:16 into the third, backhanding in the rebound of a hard Chase Witala shot. Gabrielle was on his knees as he fired after he'd pushed off Royals defenceman Ralph Jarratt to get free just outside the blue paint.
The goal was the 26th of the season for Gabrielle, the Boston Bruins fourth-round pick in 2015. He leads the Cougars in goals and is tied with Witala for the team lead in points, each with 44.
Former Cougar Alex Forsberg came close to tying it a handful of minutes later, rifling a wicked blast that Edmonds stopped with his shoulder.
Then with 5:17 left, Royals defenceman Ryan Gagnon slipped behind enemy lines and took the puck in all alone but his labelled shot was absorbed by Edmonds' trapper.
The Royals kept coming and 17 seconds after Gagnon was turned aside, Jack Walker had the puck in deep but was denied by the 19-year-old Cougar goalie. The Royals got Griffen Outhouse to the bench for the extra skater and created at least three great chances but Edmonds wasn't biting.
The win left the Cougars (25-14-1-10 tied with the Royals (24-15-1-3) in second place in the B.C. Division.
The Cougars hold two games in hand over Victoria.
After an evenly-played first period which kept both goaltenders busy, the Cougars generated some great scoring chances to break the scoreless draw in the second period. With seven minutes gone, Witala, the WHL player of the month in December, schooled Gagnon, a Quesnel minor hockey product, with an inside-outside deke on a left-wing rush and fed the puck to linemate Gabrielle standing right outside the crease.
Gabrielle shot right away while a pile of bodies converged on the net but the officials ruled the puck never crossed the line.
The Royals' best chance of the period came a minute before the break. Matthew Phillips, the Royals' 16-year-old five-foot-six, 137-pound dynamo and rookie-of-the-year candidate, came close to adding to his 43-point total with a quick shot from close range.
Walker followed up on the rebound but couldn't get it past Edmonds, who sprawled across the crease to save the goal.
Outhouse, the former Cariboo Cougar goalie who shut out the Cougars 2-0 in P.G. on Dec. 18, was on his game again, setting up what became a great goaltending battle with Edmonds. Outhouse made 37 saves as the Royals outshot the Cats 41-38.
The rematch is set for tonight (7 p.m. start). Former Cougar defencemen Eric Brewer and Jeff Zorn will be guests of honour on WHL alumni night.
Don't expect the Cougars to change their lineup much with the WHL trade deadline approaching Sunday at 11 a.m., PST. The Cougars are loaded with 10 1997-born players and five born in 1996. They're expected to make their biggest playoff impact next season and management isn't about to mess much with the team's chemistry... The biggest deal so far over the past week was the Spokane Chiefs sending 20-year-old sniper LW Adam Helewka to the Red Deer Rebels on New Year's Day for C Wyatt Johnson, forward prospect Eli Zummack, the Rebels' second-round draft pick in 2016 and their fifth-rounder in 2017. The Rebels, who are loading up to play host to the Memorial Cup, picked up LW Jake DeBrusk from Swift Current on Dec. 27... The Cougars have 31 games left in the season, 15 at home and 16 on the road. They host the Seattle Thunderbirds Tuesday and Wednesday at CN Centre. On Monday the T-birds added Prince George-born-and-raised D Bryan Allbee in a trade for a fifth-round pick in 2017.
