It took a Cadillac effort from the Prince George Cougars to beat the high and mighty Everett Silvertips twice in eight days.
In the rematch Saturday at CN Centre against those same Silvertips, that focus on being at their best was nowhere to be found and the Cougars fell back to earth with a gut-wrenching thud. It was clunker from the start as the Cats went missing in action for the first two minutes, eventually losing 5-2 in front of 2,267 spectators.
The Silvertips woke up in a foul mood after the Cats disturbed their nest and beat them 4-3 on Friday, their first three-game skid of the season. They played like a group of angry bees from the opening puck drop and scored on each of the first two shots of the game.
Roman Seeley got the visitors started with a wraparound wrister over the glove of a distracted Tyler Brennan. The 16-year-old rookie goalie had Silvertips forward Jackson Berezowski land at his feet in the crease just before the puck arrived after Berezowski was cross-checked from behind by Cats defenceman Rhett Rhinehart.
Exactly a minute later, at 2:03, Everett defenceman Jake Christianson let go a point shot and Cougars checker Blake Eastman, trying for the block, got clipped by Christianson’s follow-through and was in the shooting lane long enough for Brennan to lose sight of the puck as it sailed high into the net.
The Silvertips owned the Cougars in the first 15 minutes and came within a Conrad Mitchell shot off the post from adding to their lead, and it was an uphill climb the rest of the game.
“We weren’t ready to play, it was as simple as that,” said Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb. “We didn’t have any energy and it showed on the ice – mental mistakes.
“It’s one of those games where you really have to prepare hard. They’re a top team, they’re a winning team and a winning organization and they’re going to have some big pushback and we weren’t ready for it at all. We got behind and we started chasing the game and we were never in the game.”
The Cougars did get couple quality chances late in the period and former Silvertip Nikita Krivokrasov got them on the scoreboard four minutes into the second period with his sixth of the season, popping in the rebound of a Rhett Rhinehart slapshot that gave Everett goalie Braden Holt trouble.
The Cougars successfully blanked the league’s top power play with three penalty-kills in the second period but had no answer for the Silvertips two-goal outburst which ran the score to 4-1. Cole Fonstad, a 19-year-old Montreal Canadians’ fifth-round pick in 2018 acquired in a November trade with Prince Albert, beat Brennan cleanly with a shot from the left side with the teams playing 4-on-4. Two minutes later, at the 13:52 mark, Berezowski came off the bench and raced in undetected to the deep slot where he was able to deflect in a perfect pass from Wyatte Wylie.
The onslaught continued in the third period. Everett continued to outskate the Cougars and added to the lead when Mitchell redirected Seeley’s long shot. Defenceman Jack Sander converted the Cougars’ fourth power-play chance late in the game to cap the scoring.
The Silvertips improved to 26-9-2-1 with 55 points, 30 ahead of the Cougars and just three behind the U.S. Division-leading Portland Winterhawks.
The Cougars (10-22-2-3) missed an opportunity to move closer to a playoff position, with the two teams they’re trying to catch - the Tri-City Americans and Seattle Thunderbirds – both losing their road games Saturday. The Cats remain six points behind Tri-City and Seattle in the chase for eighth place in the Western Conference.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars hit the road next week for a six-game East Division tour which starts Wednesday night in Regina. They’ll be back at CN Centre Jan. 24 to face the Kamloops Blazers… The Cougars have some decisions to make on possible trades in advance of the league’s roster deadline on Friday… Koehn Ziemmer played his second WHL game Saturday at right wing and got one quality scoring chance with about three minutes left in the game. The just-turned 15-year-old will be returned to the St. Albert Raiders triple-A midget team.
Saturday’s WHL summary
Silvertips 5 at Cougars 2
First Period
1. Everett, Seeley 3 1:03
2. Everett, Christianson 8 (Kindopp, Fonstad) 2:03
Penalty – Butt Evt (tripping) 15:55.
Second Period
3. Prince George, Krivokrasov 6 (Rhinehart, Colina) 4:14
4. Everett, Fonstad 6 (Kindopp, Zellweger) 11:46
5. Everett, Berezowski 11 (Wylie, Price) 13:52
Penalties – Fairbrother Evt (tripping) 2:08, Kindopp Evt (unsportsmanlike conduct), Moberg PG (holding) 3:20, Upper PG (tripping) 6:39, Moberg PG (holding) 8:48, Wright Evt (roughing), Colina PG (roughing), 11:21, Rhinehart PG (tripping) 15:30.
Third Period
6. Everett, Mitchell 4 (Seeley, Gut) 3:33
7. Prince George, Sander 3 (Rhinehart, Koffer) 12:35 (pp)
Penalties –Rhinehart PG (slashing) 5:25, Fairbrother Evt (charging) 9:02, Goncalves Evt (cross-checking) 11:58, Mitchell Evt (roughing) 17:56, Gurney Evt (hooking) 19:17, Colina PG (cross-checking major, game misconduct) 19:47.
Shots on goal by
Everett10 12 13 -35
Prince George 8 8 5 -21
Goal – Everett, Holt (W,1-2-0-0); Prince George, Brennan (L,3-3-0-0).
Power play – Evt: 0-4; PG: 1-6.
Referees – Adam Byblow, Stephen Campbell; Linesmen - Josh Albinati, Nick Albinati.
Attendance – 2,267.
