Heartbreak in Portland.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it, PG Cougar fans?
Diego Buttazoni’s game-winning goal at 17:57 of double-overtime put a bow on a heart-wrenching 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday night, pushing the Cougars to the brink of elimination.
What could have been a lopsided affair between two long-standing rivals turned out to be a knock-down, drag’em out tilt.
Despite being down captain Riley Heidt due to a one-game suspension and stalwart defenseman Bauer Dumanski to injury, PG played its best game of the series.
Prior to Buttazoni’s dagger, the Cougars had a golden opportunity to win it on the power-play but were stymied by Czech import goaltender Ondrej Stebetak.
To make matters worse, a point blast by Carson Carels on a Cougars man-advantage to give them a 4-3 edge with 1:54 remaining in the third period.
CARSON CARELS HAS THE BIGGEST GOAL OF HIS CAREER@CarlsJrCA https://t.co/OTBgWMbmnc pic.twitter.com/GQXWTp8BAJ
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) April 3, 2025
It would be all for not as Ryan Miller deflected a Tyson Jugnauth point shot past Cougars netminder Josh Ravensbergen to even the score at 4-4 with 24 seconds left.
Prince George got off to another slow start at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum with discipline being major issue, taking the game’s first four penalties including a high-sticking double-minor to Aleksey Chichkin at 4:15 of the second period.
But it was an offensive zone cross-check by Koehn Ziemmer that allowed the lethal power-play of the Winterhawks to set the pace.
Philadelphia Flyers prospect Carter Sotheran’s point shot got by a screened Ravensbergen to give Portland a 1-0 edge, the fourth consecutive time the Winterhawks struck first in the series.
Borya Valis tied the game at 1-1 twelve minutes later, capitalizing on a Ziemmer feed that handcuffed Stebetak.
The momentum only lasted 45 seconds though as a defensive breakdown in the Cougars zone allowed Kyle Chyzowski to swoop and re-direct a Jugnauth howitzer from inside the visitor blueline.
Jugnauth, a signed prospect by the Seattle Kraken, has an astounding 12 points in four games in the 2025 Playoffs against PG.
Late in the second period, the special teams battle swung back the Cougars way as Matteo Danis notched his third of the postseason from Carrels and Jett Lajoie.
Both teams traded power-play goals in the third as Hudson Darby (Portland) notched his first of the postseason at 2:37 while Ziemmer (PG) broke his goose-egg four minutes later.
King Koehn ties game!@LAKings | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/VxTFYI7TBH pic.twitter.com/Bf59m0NPES
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) April 3, 2025
In the absence of Heidt, Lee Shurgot got promoted to the top six forward grouping and saw extensive time on the Cougars first-power-play unit.
PG mainly rolled with four defenceman as Viliam Kmec, Carels, Corbin Vaughan and Chichkin, essentially seeing every second shift from the late in the third period until the conclusion of double overtime.
CORBIN VAUGHAN SAVES THE GAME pic.twitter.com/0XxxzHDZn2
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) April 3, 2025
Rookies Leith Hunter and Arseni Anisimov played sparingly as the third pair.
Ditto for 19-year-old forward Van Eger who drew into the lineup only seeing a handful of shifts.
Despite nine goals being allowed, the good old-fashioned slobber-knocker between the Winterhawks and Cougars saw its best stretch of goaltending.
Ravensbergen made a career-high 51 saves in defeat, many of which were the clutch variety to send the game to extra time.
📢 The Berger is in the office, I repeat, the Berger is in the office 📢@PGCougars | #NHLDraft | #WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingTheFuture pic.twitter.com/NSmc8n1jNG
— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) April 3, 2025
Stebetak dueled with him every step of the way turning aside 49 PG attempts.
The Cougars finished the game 3-for-5 on the power-play while Portland was 2-for-8.
Wednesday’s attendance was 3,929 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This was also the longest game in Cougars franchise history lasting 97:57.
Portland leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 with Game 5 set for Friday at 7pm.
If the Cougars win, Game Six will be back in Prince George, Sunday at 6pm at the CN Centre.
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