On the final day of 2024, it was the fourth liners of the Prince George Cougars who told the last great story.
Patrick Sopiraz’s first WHL goal along with singles from Evan Groening and Aiden Foster powered the BC Division leading Cats to a 6-4 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Tuesday to conclude a three-game, five-day road swing.
The so-called lesser lights among the bottom six forwards supplied half of the team’s goal production to support Cooper Michaluk’s 27-save performance, which also included an assist on Terik Parascak’s empty-net goal late in the third period.
Under pressure most of the night, due to PG’s heavy forecheck, the youthful T-Birds coughed up four first period goals.
Groening lit the lamp 2:37 into the opening frame while Sopiarz cashed in on a Kayden Lemire feed in front of the Seattle net.
Cougars captain and Canada World Junior snub Riley Heidt continued his revenge tour with a pair of markers 5:30 minutes apart, feasting on T-Birds netminder Scott Ratzlaff.
Seattle would remain within shouting distance courtesy of former Valley West Giant Nishaan Parmer and Brayden Cootes who added singles for the hosts.
During a mish-mash sequence where the Cougars had three defenceman on the ice, Foster picked his spot on Ratzlaff capitalizing on a Heidt feed to make it 5-2.
However, the Thunderbirds wouldn’t go quietly into 2025 as newly acquired overage forward Hayden Pakkala collected his 8th of the campaign from Simon Lovsin and Matej Pekar.
Kazden Mathies put Seattle within one after notching his fourth of the season past Michaluk.
Prince George outshot the Thunderbirds 38-31 while going 0-for-2 on the power-play.
Seattle converted once on four tries.
Ratzlaff allowed five goals on 37 Cougar shots as the T-Birds drop to 11-22-2-1.
Seattle forward Arjun Bawa had an uneventful game against his old club winning one of two faceoffs to go along with a minus-one rating and one shot on goal.
PG extends its winning streak to five games, improving its record to 21-9-3-2 – six points ahead of the Victoria Royals (17-11-3-4) for the BC Division crown.
Victoria blew a 4-1 first period lead, falling 7-6 in overtime to the Vancouver Giants Tuesday afternoon.
The Cougars head home to continue their three-game mini-series against Seattle Friday (7pm) and Saturday (6pm) from the CN Centre.
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