Nothing like a Seattle sweep to cure the Prince George Cougars’ shootout woes.
After coming up empty four times this season in the skills contest to decide the extra point, Cole Moberg put an end to that 0-4 drought in the fourth round of the shootout, depositing a smoking wrister into the top corner of the net behind Seattle Thunderbirds goalie Roddy Ross to seal a 2-1 victory.
As he’s done so many times this season, Taylor Gauthier supplied superb goaltending for the Cats, making 34 saves through 65 minutes of hockey and three more in the shootout. His first-star leadership lifted a Cougar team that had to win, knowing the T-birds came to CN Centre Wednesday eight points ahead of the Cats in the chase for the second wild-card playoff spot.
Now that gap is down to seven after the Cougars beat Seattle twice in successive nights, following up on Tuesday’s 6-4 victory. The Cougars (16-26-3-4) will get another crack at the T-Birds (20-23-3-3) Sunday in Kent, Wash.
“Last night I didn’t have my best game out there and just wanted to bounce back and I think I did a pretty good job of shutting them down whenever they got opportunities and at the end of the day we got the win and that’s all that matters,” said Gauthier.
The 18-year-old from Calgary was dialed-in from the opening puck drop, using his rapid-fire trapper to deny a handful of great T-birds’ scoring chances. Possibly his best save was one he didn’t have to make. It came 1:20 into overtime when Owen Williams took a 2-on-1 pass from Payton Mount and ripped a shot from the deep slot. Gauthier was moving the opposite way of the path of the puck and did the splits as he flicked out his right hand to snag the puck with his trapper.
“I think the consensus in overtime was it was missing the net, that’s what I’ve heard,” said Gauthier. “That one got the fans into it a little more.”
If that was indeed the case, then the save of the night came in the second period, right after the Cougars tied the game. Seattle winger Lucas Ciona took the puck deep and tried to beat Gauthier with a forehand-backhand move. The puck trickled through his legs and while prone on his side, with the puck about to slide over the goal line, Gauthier reached back and smothered it with his glove just in time.
“Whenever I get my glove working it’s really going to be a fun night and I think that was on display tonight,” said Gauthier.
In the shootout, he turned aside Matthew Rempe, Andrej Kukuca and Mount, in the fourth round, after Simon Kubicek’s low stick-side shot kept Seattle alive in the third round. Vladislav Mikhalchuk scored on T-birds goalie Roddy Ross in the second round, setting the stage for Moberg.
“To start, I knew I wasn’t going to go forehand-backhand because that hadn’t worked three of four times already this year, so I thought I had to change it up,” said Moberg. “Then I came down and I was waiting for that top corner to open up and it did and I just hit it.
“That gave us a lot of confidence, obviously, beating that team back-to-back here and we still have two more against us. The point gap we were behind them is closing and we just have to keep building. It just shows how hard we’re working and it’s actually paying off.”
Seattle opened the scoring on the first power play of the game late in the first period. Kukuca, a Slovakian import, found the net through a screen in front of Gauthier, scoring on a wrist shot from the high slot, right after Mount’s deflection in front went just wide of the net.
The Cougars evened the count 13 minutes into the second period with a breakaway goal from Ilijah Colina. The 19-year-old took advantage of a Seattle line change which opened up the middle of the rink and he took a stretch pass from Ryan Schoettler at full flight, finishing with a high snapper in over the glove hand of Ross.
Until that point, the T-birds had been playing textbook road hockey, allowing very few scoring chances and for the most part keeping the Cougars from getting set up in the offensive end. That was readily apparent during two Prince George power-play chances in rapid succession which failed to generate a shot on goal.
The Cats’ power play went 0-5, while Seattle’s finished 1-for-2.
Gauthier got the sense a month ago the Cougars were being written off as a playoff contender and he and his teammates have used that for inspiration. Just one Cougar, the 20-year-old Schoettler - in his 17-year-old season - has played in the WHL playoffs .
“We’re going to keep fighting to the end, we’re seven points back now so we’re right on their heels and we’ve got two more against them,” said Gauthier. “It’s going to be a fun couple weeks here and it will nice to play some meaningful hockey down the stretch. We’re over .500 since Christmas, so it just goes to show how much heart this team has and how much we care for each other.
“We’re trying to make that playoff push and it’s a credit to all of us on the team and the coaching staff for making us believe we can get there.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars will head out of town Friday destined for Langley, where they play the Vancouver Giants on Saturday. The Cougars and T-birds hook up again on Feb. 23 in Kent, Wash., the final meeting of the season series. The Cougars are back at home to face the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday, Feb. 15, followed by a Family Day matinee on Monday, Feb. 17 against the Red Deer Rebels…. The Cats have eight home games left and 11 on the road. They’ll finish their 26th regular season in Prince George with six games against road opponents from March 13-21 while CN Centre is occupied by the World Women’s Curling Championship… Former Cougar Jackson Leppard scored his first WHL hat trick Wednesday in Winnipeg, helped the ICE to a 5-1 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors. Leppard, who turned 20 on Jan. 18, played two full seasons for the Cougars before he was sent to Winnipeg Oct. 19 in a deal for 19-year-old D Marco Creta, 18-year-old F Holden Kodak, 18; Winnipeg’s third-round draft picks in 2021 and 2022 and a conditional fifth-round pick in ’22.
Wednesday WHL summary
Thunderbirds 1 at Cougars 2 (S/O)
First Period
1. Seattle, Kukuca 19 (Kubicek, Mount) 18:13 (pp)
Penalties –Schoettler PG (tripping) 17:03, Bauer Sea (tripping) 19:52.
Second Period
2. Prince George, Colina 8 (Schoettler) 13:04
Penalties – Ciona Sea (checking from behind) 3:43, McNelly Sea (roughing) 7:04, Mikhalchuk PG (high-sticking) 7:06, Davidson Sea (roughing), Creta PG (cross-checking) 10:59.
Third Period
No scoring.
Penalties– Rempe Sea (interference) 2:12, Bateman Sea (hooking) 16:58.
Overtime
No scoring.
Penalties – None.
Shootout
Seattle – Rempe, missed; Kukuca, missed; Kubicek, scored; Mount, missed.
Prince George – Browne, missed; Mikhalchuk, scored; Colina, missed; Moberg, scored.
Shots on goal by
Seattle 9 12 11 3 -35
Prince George 10 7 7 1--25
Goal – Seattle, Ross (L,16-17-3-3); Prince George, Gauthier (W,12-19-3-4).
Power plays – Sea: 1-2; PG: 0-5.
Referees – Bryan Bourdon, Trevor Nolan; Linesmen: Trevor Beaton, Tyler Garden.
Attendance – 1,851.
Scratches – D Zach Ashton (lower body, week-to-week), RW Mekai Sanders (healthy); Prince George: D Aiden Reeves (healthy), LW Nikita Krivokrasov (knee, week-to-week), LW Davin Griffin (healthy).
