In another barnburner at the CN Centre corral Saturday night the Portland Winterhawks lassoed the two points they were after and made their long bus trip back across the U.S. border much more enjoyable, beating Prince George Cougars 2-1.
Diego Buttazzoni cradled a power-play pass from Carter Southeran and rifled the puck into a half-open net behind Ty Young for his 20th goal for the winner with six minutes gone in the third period.
Then it was up to Nick Avakyan and an airtight Winterhawks defence to do the rest. The Portland netminder was flawless in the final period, topping all 15 shots to deny the Cougars their second Cougars’ comeback of the weekend, much to the disappointment of most of the people in the sellout crowd of 6,009 on Indigenous Night.
The fans created a playoff-like atmosphere and came with hopes the Cougars could find a way, like they did Friday, when Riley Heidt scored twice in the third period to cap a 3-2 victory.
“It was a real great weekend of hockey,” said Cougars head coach Mark Lamb. “(The Winterhawks) had the better jump tonight, probably the better chances the first two periods. I thought we picked up our game in the third period but it was a little too late.
“It’s a real good experience to play two games like this against a top team for us to know what we’re up against. We don’t have to take a back seat to anybody, we’re a good hockey team. We lost to tonight but in the third period we started taking it to them.”
The Winterhawks drew first blood late in the first period. Detroit Red Wings first-rounder Nate Danielson potted a rebound for his third goal in four games with Portland since being acquired at the trade deadline from Brandon.
The Cougars got the equalizer in the second period. Terik Parascak picked off a clearing attempt from defenceman Marek Alscher up the slot and let go a shot that bounced off the pad of Avakian right to Ondrej Becher, and he filed away the rebound for his 18th of the season.
Young made 26 saves in the Cougar nets, including an insane stick stop to rob Buttazzoni’s A-grade scoring attempt when he was set up all alone standing just off the post, fed by a goalmouth pass from Danielson.
The Cougars-Winterhawks regular-season series is now complete with each team winning twice and the only chance of the teams will meet again this season would be in the playoffs in the Western Conference final.
Based on what they showed in the two games this weekend – two highly-skilled evenly-matched teams showcasing junior hockey at its best, we can only hope.
LOOSE PUCKS: Parascak will head to Moncton, N.B. this week for the Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game on Wednesday.
