The Cougars are shipping back up to Prince George.
And they couldn’t be more thrilled to be heading back to BC’s Northern Capital to play at least one more home game at CN Centre.
Koehn Ziemmer played a like King, providing a clutch two-goal effort in a 6-1 Cougars shelling over the Portland Winterhawks claiming Game Five of the WHL’s Western Conference Final Thursday night in front of 6,138 distraught fans at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Portland leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.
The 19-year-old signed Los Angeles Kings prospect meant business from the word go – coming in like a wrecking ball, laying out anyone in a red Winterhawks jersey while also discovering his vintage scoring touch.
After Gabe Klassen banked a puck off the heel of Josh Ravensbergen to make it 1-0 Portland – Ziemmer put the visitors on his back and was the catalyst for six unanswered Cougars goals.
Coming up the ice on a scattered 3-on-2 rush, Ziemmer found a way to slip in behind the Portland defence and fire a wrist shot under the cross bar past Jan Spunar to even the score.
The Mayerthorpe Magician worked his magic one more time before the end of the period curling past a wimpy defender before cutting into the slot and firing another hard blast past Spunar to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
KOEHN ZIEMMER, BACK 2 BACK!@LAKings #GoKingsGo https://t.co/c0z9Pn8mtI pic.twitter.com/OVPPHFJN5Q
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) May 3, 2024
Given up and left for dead by some after a pair of less than inspiring losses in Game’s Three and Four – the Cougars continued to pour on the offense in the second period.
Lanky power-forward Hunter Laing converted late on a PG power-play placing the puck in-between his legs, beating a sprawled out Spunar before falling to the ice.
“I think tonight was the first time this season, our group had to gain some confidence inch by inch. We had to find a way and the first goal we gave up was one where we mishandled the puck and we got back to work,” said Jim Playfair, Cougars Associate Coach.
“It was one of those games where the players felt good and confident but they didn’t naturally have the edge to their confidence and that is what happens when you lose three in a row. They found a way and stuck with it and I thought we did on good job on special teams.”
Portland had two golden opportunities to snatch the momentum back on their side in the dying seconds only to be turned away by Ravensbergen.
A point blast by Klassen was padded aside by the 17-year-old only to see the puck ricochet to the stick of James Stefan – luckily Ravensbergen was able to get a toe on it to keep it out.
“He is as steady as it goes and he has a really innocent demeanor about himself in the game and he really makes you look back and appreciate the goodness of the game. It starts with the basics and the passion you have when you do things that are very hard and they look very simple. That is the simplicity of what Joshua brings to our team and I think the rest of the players feed off that,” Playfair said.
🎥SAVE OF THE NIGHT🎥
Move aside Whopper Wednesdays. This is a Ravensberger Thursdays household.@RealCdnSS | @PGCougars | #SaveoftheNight | #WHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/OxOjovRvZF
— The WHL (@TheWHL) May 3, 2024
In the third, PG emptied the gas tanks and ran roughshod over a frustrated and possibly banged up Winterhawks side who was once again without forward Josh Davies and star blueliner Luca Cagnoni.
Ondrej Becher made the Winterhawks pay on yet another transition rush cashing in on an Oren Shtrom feed – all the 19-year-old from Czechia had to do was tap into the yawning cage.
Borya Valis provided the exclamation point scoring on a penalty shot going through the five-hole of Spunar to make it 5-1. Valis drew the call after getting hooked up on a break-away, negating what looked to be a dangerous scoring opportunity.
🎥HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT🎥
Flexed on ‘em.@PGCougars | #WHLHoN | #WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingtheFuture pic.twitter.com/uNtRjHhNlX
— The WHL (@TheWHL) May 3, 2024
Keaton Dowhaniuk added his fourth of the post-season courtesy of a Becher feed to add insult to injury.
Despite being without rookie sniper Terik Parascak for a second consecutive game, PG’s offensive prowess was spot on – outshooting Portland 36-26.
Ravensbergen made 25 saves in net for the visitors while Spunar could only muster 30 stops on 36 PG attempts.
Both Becher and Ziemmer had three-point efforts for the Cougars.
“We have three more game sevens in front of us so when Ziems steps up and scores those two goals you could see where the rest of the team felt like he is a big game player and comes as advertised. He is an NHL drafted player and that is what he is supposed to do,” added Playfair.
Make that FOUR goals for Keaton Dowhaniuk this postseason! https://t.co/D9TR2UofE5 pic.twitter.com/4bil5BcbiA
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) May 3, 2024
So far, this Western Conference Final has been the tale of two series.
In both PG wins, they have outscored Portland by a combined score of 11-1.
When you flip the script the other way, the Winterhawks outgunned the Cougars by a 14-6 margin in their three victories.
Game Six is set for Monday at 7pm from CN Centre.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday) morning at 11am at both the box office and through TicketsNorth.ca and are expected to sell fast.
In addition, fans are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs and barbeques to the CN Centre parking lot on Friday to welcome back the Cougars from their 13-hour trek home from the Rose City.
Players and coaches are expected to arrive back between 11:30 AM and 1PM.
The Eastern Conference Final continues in Saskatoon as the Blades welcome the Moose Jaw Warriors for Game 5 at Sasktel Centre on Friday.
That series is tied 2-2 with Game Six set for Sunday back in the Friendly City.
McBride’s Tanner Molendyk and Evan Gardner of Fort St. John play for the Blades while Ethan Semeniuk who also hails from FSJ is a member of the Warriors.
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