After a disastrous start, the Prince George Cougars comeback bid against the Victoria Royals fell short, as they lose 6-3.
“An unfortunate start for Rav and the group, and not a lot of pushback until some emotion with Greener and Soap and Lemire getting the guys going, getting powerplay chances from the five guys going, getting us going, unfortunately a couple broken sticks maybe changed the end of that game,” said Assistant Coach Carter Rigby on the post game show on 94.3 the Goat.
Josh Ravensbergen was chased from the Prince George net early after allowing three goals on just five shots. Cooper Michaluk put on a valiant effort in relief, making 19 saves on 20 shots.
Koehn Ziemmer brought the Cougars to life 15:42 into the second period and made team history, scoring his 121st goal in a Cougars uniform, the team’s most all-time.
Ziemmer wasn’t done yet, cutting the lead to just two 12:17 into the third.
Viliam Kmec made things interesting, cutting the lead down to just one with less than five minutes to go.
With the Cougars’ net empty, Kmec’s stick broke, which allowed Teydon Trembecky to score an empty net goal, dashing the Cougars comeback hopes.
“I like the character of the group, you’re down four, a lot of teams would fold after that and we pushed back,” Rigby said.
“A broken stick at the end there, who knows what will happen on that one, but we like to believe we’re getting a chance off that for sure, especially after he just had a bomb from the point and went in.”
Trembecky put another in the empty net to send the 3,860 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena home smiling.
The box score is here.
With two losses to Victoria on the weekend, the Cougars (31-19-4-2) are now nine points behind the Royals (34-15-3-6) in the BC Division standings.
The Cougars have two games in hand over Victoria.
The WHL standings are here.
The Cougars are back at home Tuesday to host the Kelowna Rockets at the CN Centre.
The full Cougars schedule is here.
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