Cougars edge Wheaties in Western finale

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This article was published 25/01/2025 (237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Prince George Cougars scored three goals in five minutes in the third period as they came back to beat the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings 3-2 in Western Hockey League action at CN Centre on Friday.

Ben Riche, Aiden Foster and Koehn Ziemmer scored for Prince George (25-14-3-2), with Brandon (22-16-3-2) getting its goals from Jaxon Jacobson and Carter Klippenstein in front of a crowd of 4,950.

The Cougars, who had lost four games in a row, hadn’t played since falling in Everett to the Silvertips last Saturday, while it was the fourth game of the week for Brandon, and the finale in their seven-game road trip.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it was a tough end to the trip.

“The first period was really good,” Murray said. “I thought we played well. In the second period we got in a little bit of a track meet but I thought it was pretty good overall and we were up 1-0 after two. The third period was disappointing.” Brandon had an 8-2 edge in shots in the first 12 minutes but Riche had a pair of terrific chances, including a breakaway on which he missed the net as Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason stared him down.

The Wheat Kings faced their first real adversity 13 minutes 47 seconds into the game when defenceman Luke Shipley was flagged for a high sticking double minor when he inadvertently caught Cougars forward Aiden Foster on the face.

The league’s top penalty kill held the Cougars to just two shots and had a terrific chance of their own when Nolan Flamand made a sensational play to keep the puck in the neutral zone, skated in and fired a shot off the post behind Prince George goalie Joshua Ravensbergen.

Brandon played an almost ideal road period, and although nobody scored, they held a 13-5 advantage in shots after 20 minutes.

The second period quickly devolved into a special-teams battle, with the referees issuing eight minor penalties in an 11-minute span. Although Brandon had been held to just two shots in the first 11 minutes, they opened the scoring at the 12:46 mark on their second power play when a Matteo Michels shot rebounded back out to Jacobson and he beat Ravensbergen over his shoulder for his ninth goal and 30th point of the season.

The Cougars finally broke through on their fifth power play 3:23 into the third period on a one-timer from high in the zone by Riche, who had burned the Wheat Kings as a member of the Saskatoon Blades earlier in the season.

Just 45 seconds later, Klippenstein fired a shot over Ravensbergen off the rush as Prince George defenceman Aleksey Chichkin pushed Brandon forward Joby Baumuller into the goalie. It was called no goal on the ice, but the four referees had a long discussion and it went to a video review, where it was ruled to be a goal.

“I think the puck was off his stick before there was any contact,” Murray said. “They drove him into the goalie, so that eliminated goaltender interference. I think the mooring stayed on that side. The puck being off our guy’s stick before there was any contact enabled the play to continue and it was a good goal.”

It took less than two minutes for Prince George to square the game again. After a great Brandon chance, the puck came back down the ice and a rebound on Terik Parascak’s hard low shot was tapped in by Foster.

“We had a great chance to make it 3-1 and they come down and score right off it,” Murray said. The Cougars took their first lead 7:53 into the third period on their sixth power play of a strange goal. Brandon’s penalty killers thought they had the puck out of their own zone and seemed to relax for just long enough for it to be passed down low to Ziemmer, who beat Bjarnason with a quick move to put the hosts up 3-2. It was ruled to be a goal after the four officials met again.

“It was a frustrating sequence of events,” Murray said. “We flip it over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty, which is the first part that is incredibly frustrating. Then the puck appeared to go over the blue-line, but the linesman waved it off. All four of our guys on the ice thought it was off-side so I think we had the puck and tapped it to them and then we have four guys with their hands up in the air like it’s off-side. They continued playing and we didn’t, and that was the game-winning goal … But the cardinal rule in hockey is you play until you hear a whistle so that’s disappointing.”

The four-goal outburst came in less than five minutes.

The Wheat Kings pulled their goalie with 65 seconds remaining. With 57 seconds left, Prince George iced the puck, allowing Brandon to call a timeout. After a flurry of chances, they iced the puck again with 27.7 seconds remaining, and Brandon didn’t get another good chance.

Bjarnason made 21 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Ravensbergen stopping 29 shots for the Cougars.

Brandon went 1-for-3 on the power play, with Prince George scoring twice in six chances.

During the rest of the trip, Brandon lost 4-2 to the Calgary Hitmen, 5-3 to the Everett Silvertips and 3-1 to the Vancouver Giants, and beat the Victoria Royals 5-4, the Kelowna Rockets 7-3 and the Kamloops Blazers 6-3. While they ended up posting a 3-4-0-0 record, they were remarkably consistent, avoiding the pitfall of a truly bad game or two that invariably creeps into that long trip.

“That’s the disappointing part,” Murray said. “It’s easy to look at the record and go ‘Well, you finished 3-4.’ The four games we lost, it leaves a tough taste in your mouth. We were up in Everett in the last five, we were up here in the third period and I thought we played well in Vancouver, and to come out with no points out of those eight was tough. I thought we battled hard all road trip, we just need to close games out but we’ll keep plugging away and playing the same way.

“We did enough good things to have a real good record on this trip so we can’t get discouraged. We’ll get home and hopefully get back to it.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured forwards Roger McQueen and Easton Odut, plus F Ben Binder Nord (illness) and D Merrek Arpin, who remains away from the team as he attends to a family emergency. As a result, Brandon had 17 skaters … Prince George D Corbin Vaughan was out as he served the second game of another suspension … Marcus Nguyen and Dominik Petr led the Wheat Kings with five shots each on net … The game took two hours, 26 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Prince George won 30-26 … The Wheat Kings finally play at home again when the Red Deer Rebels visit Westoba Place on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson

Cougars 3, Wheat Kings 2

First Period

No Scoring.

Penalties — Vallis PG (tripping) 5:40, Shipley Bdn (high sticking, double minor) 13:47.

Second Period

1. Brandon, Jacobson 9 (Michels, Shipley) 12:46 (pp).

Penalties — Belusko Bdn (high sticking) 4:32, Ziemmer PG (tripping) 7:32, Hadland Bdn (tripping) 9:02, Danis PG (slashing) 11:01, Johnson Bdn (roughing) 14:37, Dumanski PG (roughing) 14:37, Hadland Bdn (holding) 15:16, Parascak PG (roughing) 15:16. 

Third Period

2. Prince George, Riche 26 (Ziemmer) 3:23 (pp).

3. Brandon, Klippenstein 8 (unassisted) 4:08.

4. Prince George, Foster 6 (Parascak, Kmec) 5:44.

5. Prince George, Ziemmer 25 (Heidt, Parascak) 7:53 (pp).

Penalties — Jacobson Bdn (interference) 2:08, Flamand Bdn (delay of game) 7:33.

Shots on goal by

Brandon 13 8 10 — 31

Prince George 5 11 8 — 24

Goal — Brandon: Bjarnason (L, 9-11-2-0). Prince George: Ravensbergen (W, 21-8-3-1).

Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 1-3; Prince George: 2-6.

Referees — Josh Albinati, Colby Georgsen. 

Linesmen — Ron Dietterle, Tyler Garden.

Attendance — 4,950 in Prince George.