For the fifth time in 15 games, the Prince George Cougars were able to get on the winning side of a one-goal contest.
Thanks to Ilijah Colina’s two-point night, including lighting the contest-winning lamp, the Cats extended their victory parade to three games after a 4-3 final over the Everett Silvertips Friday night (Dec. 27).
Tyler Brennan earned his third win in eight starts as the back-up netminder this season, stopping 35 of 38 shots from the U.S. Division leaders in Angel of the Winds Arena.
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) December 28, 2019
The Silvertips, who were without Dustin Wolf playing for the Americans at the 2020 World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic, were forced to play both goaltenders after Prince George scored three goals on seven shots in the first period.
Josh Maser got the offensive wheels turning by potting his team-leading 16th goal over five minutes into the tilt unassisted, but was matched by Everett’s Dawson Butt 70 seconds later for the 1-1 tie.
Filip Koffer, who was cut from the Czech’s national junior roster prior to the tournament in his home country, put that camp experience to work right away in scoring the 2-1 go-ahead goal for the Cougars at 13:14 of the opening frame.
His fourth of 2019-20 was assisted by Colina and Nikita Krivokrasov.
Rookie Blake Eastman needed 22 games to (finally) find his first career Western Hockey League (WHL) goal as the right-winger got the 3-1 lead and sent ‘Tips goalie Keegan Karki to the bench with 4:24 to play in the first.
After the break, with Braeden Holt now in the net for Everett, the home team gained momentum, cutting the deficit to 3-2 just 19 clicks into the second period.
That lead remained the same after 40 minutes until an unfortunate delay-of-game penalty taken by Jack Sander allowed Everett to tie it up 30 seconds into the power-play at 3-3.
However, the Cougars answered less than a minute later as Colina’s sixth of the season regained the one-goal lead with helpers from Ryan Schoettler and Rhett Rhinehart.
Brennan stood strong in the 12 shots that came his way despite the screams of close to 7,600 fans south of the border and cleared the way to the 4-3 win for Prince George.
Friday’s victory also marked Tyson Upper’s 100th WHL game.
The 18-year-old as of Monday (Dec. 23) has started in every contest of his major junior career, minus one last year, all with the Cougars.
The third straight triumph for Prince George improves their record to 9-20-1-3 and will be back on ice tonight (Dec. 28) in a different, but more familiar territory.
Taylor Gauthier is likely to get the start between the pipes in Victoria when the Cougars face the Royals a seventh time this year.
Puck drop goes for 7:05 p.m.
