Riley Heidt turned what looked to be another bump in the road into a night to remember for the Prince George Cougars.
The 17-year-old star forward dazzled a season-high crowd of 4,821 fans CN Centre on Sunday with a hat-trick as the Cougars outlasted the Vancouver Giants 6-4 in WHL action.
📽️ HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT 📽️
Sometimes it takes a while to find yourself on a new team.
For Cole Dubinsky and his silky mitts, this is not one of those sometimes.@PGCougars | #WHLHoN pic.twitter.com/B33Ur4DTrG
— The WHL (@TheWHL) November 14, 2022
However, like a good action movie, the fans were treated to some tense early moments.
Before the crowd could even get settled into their seats, Ty Hallaburda opened the offensive fireworks as his deflection from a Mazden Leslie point shot slithered through the leg of netminder Tyler Brennan, leading to some worrisome groans from the Cougars faithful.
PG encountered some more early turbulence a few minutes later as Ottawa Senators prospect Zach Ostapchuk glided into the zone and slid a perfect pass to Brenden Pentecost who beat Brennan, doubling the Giants advantage to 2-0.
In need of some energy to liven up the healthy crowd, the Cougars got the much-needed spark they were looking for as Carlin Dezainde had a fight with gritty Giants winger Colton Langkow. This was followed up by another brief dust up between Keaton Dowhaniuk and Matthew Edwards.
Not long after, Carter MacAdams slipped home a Hudson Thronton point blast, which leaked past the arm of Vancouver import goaltender Jesper Vikman.
Like a rocket ready for takeoff, the Cougars launched past their BC Division rivals lighting the lamp five times in the period.
Heidt scored his first of three, cashing in on a rebound, which came off a hard blast from Vilam Kmec.
New name.
Riley Hat.@PGCougars | #WHLHatTricks pic.twitter.com/ybWAdbJQ6l
— The WHL (@TheWHL) November 14, 2022
Less than two minutes later, PG continued to keep its foot on the gas pedal as newly-acquired overager Cole Dubinsky got his nose dirty in front of the net and whacked away another rebound sending the CN Centre crowd into a frenzy.
This also marked the end of the road for Vikman who allowed three goals on eight PG shots and was replaced by Brett Mirwald.
The head scratching move by Giants head coach Michael Dyck did not pay any dividends as an end-to-end rush by Dubinsky was capped off by a one-timed blast by Noah Boyko extending the Cougars lead to 4-2.
“Our leadership really came through,” said Heidt. “I think we know that a couple of lucky bounces weren’t going to get to us like they did on Saturday. Sticking to our game and playing a speedy and pucks up top kind of game is the way we want to play.”
With the snowball rolling faster down the hill, Heidt put an exclamation mark on the period by lighting the lamp a second time, pounding the Giants into submission at the end of 20 minutes.
“We had two big fights early on in the first period, which helped get our energy up, but we came back and took the lead and scored five goals in that first period – we’ll take that any day, but I think we played right and earned a couple of those bounces because we played right at the start.” added Dubinsky.
“Once you feed off energy that’s when you get playing. We’ve got all the skill in the world on this team but it’s harnessing that by using it the right way and then we will score goals.”
Ziemmer and Heidt score a highlight-reel powerplay goal.
Have we heard that one before, fans?#NHLDraft https://t.co/2Plx2aMvKm pic.twitter.com/WvQSVx6R0e
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) November 13, 2022
Frustrated and looking for answers, the Giants ramped up the physical play in the second period and looked to the rough start to get kick started.
Damien Palmieri dropped the mits with veteran forward Blake Eastman but that did little to stem the tide as Eastman put him in a headlock, negating any chance the Vancouver forward had of tilting the momentum.
At the 17:01 mark, Heidt completed his hat-trick bid as he parked himself into the blue paint and deflected a Koehn Ziemmer feed into the yawning cage past Mirwald while also taking a crunching blow from Vancouver defender Colton Roberts.
“From the start it was pretty emotional. Obviously, we knew that last night wasn’t good enough and we came today with a purpose and I think in that first period we came out strong despite giving up a couple and stayed composed the whole game,” added Heidt.
The goal, the celly, the HATS!
🧢#NHLDraft🧢 https://t.co/QaJPtaX6Ai pic.twitter.com/sJX7TmChFT— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) November 13, 2022
PG went into a defensive shell the entire third period, getting out shot 13-0 by the frustrated Giants.
Ostapchuk and Samuel Honzek scored a pair of late goals for Vancouver but were unable to trim the deficit any further.
Overall, PG outshot the Giants 24-22 in the contest while also going 1-for-3 on the power-play.
The Cougars have won three of the first four meetings against Vancouver this season with the next matchup taking place December 4th from the Langley Events Centre.
Ziemmer and Thronton extended their point streaks to 11 games where they have combined 13 goals and 25 assists between them.
Oddly enough, PG is only 4-6-0-0 at CN Centre this season and are one of eleven WHL teams who have losing records on home ice.
The list includes the Prince Albert Raiders, Brandon Wheat Kings, Tri-City Americans, Spokane Chiefs, Edmonton Oil Kings, Medicine Hat Tigers, Swift Current Broncos, Victoria Royals, Vancouver Giants and Kelowna Rockets.
In addition, former Cougar Kyren Gronick was held pointless for the Giants.
Vancouver (7-8-2-2) acquired the 18-year-old along with a second-round pick in 2025 from the Saskatoon Blades for veteran forward Justin Lies.
Lies has 8 points in 17 games with the Blades while Gronick has generated 1 goal and 5 assists in 18 games for the Giants.
With the win, the Cougars (10-9-0-0) regained top spot in the BC Division, one point up on the Kamloops Blazers (8-4-2-1) who have four games in hand.
Dubinsky, who was acquired via trade last week from the Regina Pats is already very impressed by the makeup of this team and sees its high ceiling.
“We have a very deep and complete team. We have guys who are willing to go out there and do stuff. That fourth line for us in Dez (Dezainde), Singer and Easty (Eastman) they were so important for us tonight. They went and got energy for us by cycling the puck down low.”
However, the 20-year-old from Ardrossan, Alberta stated the right mindset remains key as the delve deeper into the season – that means no easy spaces on the bingo card.
“There is never an easy game in the WHL. It doesn’t matter who you are playing, you have to come out and play it like it’s the finals of the league. You never know when that one point really matters. It might not seem like it but losing one game this time of the year could cost us something in the playoffs. Every time you go on the ice you have to play like it’s your last game and you have to want to win every single night. People don’t realize that, but that stuff makes a lot for the team and to have those who can score a lot that’s awesome. We just got to put it into the right ways.” added Dubinsky.
Next action for the Cougars is a road double header in Victoria on Friday and Saturday against the Royals (3-14-3-0) from the Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena.
The game also marked the first Mega 50/50 Jackpot of the season which topped $140,000.
It was claimed by Jonathan Peters (who got half of that amount).
Proceeds from the initiative support local first responders.
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