After nearly two months of drilling nothing but dry wells, the Prince George Cougars tapped a gusher Saturday night, giving their home fans and their parents in the crowd at CN Centre what has to rate as the team’s most complete game of the season.
They ended a 10-game home losing streak and blew off weeks of frustration with a 9-1 win over the Victoria Royals.
Koehn Zimmer made sure the Cougars would have something worth remembering from their eight-game homestand when he scored four goals, three of which came in 4:08 span of the first period. It was the first natural hat trick of the 17-year-old’s two-season WHL career.
Craig Armstrong played one of his best games as a Cougar. The 18-year-old centre scored for the first time in 2022 and first in 25 games, to cap off a one-goal, three-assist night.
Jonny Hooker, Ethan Samson, Ryker Singer and Hudson Thornton also scored for the Cougars.
Ziemmer’s fourth of the game came late in the second period and that made it a 5-1 game. He scored his first of the night just four seconds after Riley Gannon opened the scoring for the Royals nine minutes into the game. Ziemmer’s 27 goals leads all Cougars.
Riley Heidt drew three assists and Thornton also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists.
The Cougars went 2-for-6 on the power play, both goals coming on 5-on-3 chances, and they added a shorthanded marker – Hooker’s goal 13 minutes into the second period.
Ty Young made 20 saves in net for the Cougars to improve his record to 2-6-0.
The Cougars outshot the Royals 57-21, establishing a season high for shots in a game.
The Royals took the opening game of the weekend doubleheader on Friday, winning 5-3.
Saturday’s win snapped a seven-game losing streak overall and it restored a three-point gap for the Cougars (20-32-2-1, eighth in Western Conference) ahead of the ninth-place Royals (17-34-5-1. Prince George remains tied in points with the seventh-place Spokane Chiefs and is four points behind the sixth-place Vancouver Giants. The Chiefs and Giants both won Saturday.
Associate coach Josh Dickson earned his first WHL win as an acting head coach, filling in for Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb, who missed his second game with the flu.
The Cats play their next seven games on the road (four of which are in Victoria, including a two-game set next Friday and Saturday) while CN Centre serves as the home of the Women’s World Curling Championships. The Cats won’t play on home ice again until April 3, when they host Kamloops in a Sunday afternoon matinee.
