If it was just a hockey game, the Prince George Cougars accomplished their mission.
Their 4-2 win over the vising Kamloops Blazers in front of a CN Centre of 5,490 witnesses sent most of the crowd home happy.
But this was a special occasion on Cougars Fight Cancer night and the home team looked spiffy decked out in their slick black jerseys with pink trim. Those game-worn jerseys will be auctioned off online with the proceeds going to the BC Cancer Foundation.
The special guests for the pre-game puck drop, Nixon and Mavrik, showed up in their Cougar gear under the spotlight with their moms in tow for the pre-game puck drop at centre ice and they weren’t shy about showing the boys in black who they wanted to win. Both those two young boys have been through hell and back fighting off a disease they hope will soon be gone without a trace.
For at least a couple of hours when the two teams put on a show, their compromised health wasn’t on their minds of those two youngsters and they left the rink happy to see their Cougars gain another two points in the WHL standings.
For Cougars captain Riley Heidt, whose mom Leanne from Saskatoon, a cancer survivor, was in the stands watching, it was obvious the 19-year-old centre was willing to give everything he had to beat the Blazers, and he was rewarded with a goal and an assist.
The Cougars (34-19-4-2) won for the 21st time on home ice this season. They took a 2-0 lead into the second period and added two more in the middle frame to take control in a game they needed to keep pace with the Victoria Royals.
“We’ve got to bring it every night especially because there’s only 10 games left in the season,” said Heidt.
“It was special night for all of wearing those cancer jerseys and it was a big win and we just have to carry it on this road trip. My mom’s cancer-free and just to kind of see it go through the family it’s obviously heartbreaking, but they’re all very strong people and they don’t quit fighting and we just want to keep supporting it as much as we can.”
Heidt touched off the early fireworks nine minutes in when he caried the puck behind the net and let go a perfect pass to linemate Terik Parascak standing just outside the crease and the Washington Capitals’ first-rounder flicked it in for his 26th goal.
Viliam Kmec made it 2-0 late in the period when he cruised in from the point and was there to take the carom off the backboard when a shot from Borya Valis went high and wide.
The Blazers were unable to generate much offence in the opening 20 minutes but made up for it a couple shifts into the second period.
Detroit draft pick Emmitt Finnie gained the zone and got the puck to Matteo Koci, who wisely chose to give it Tommy Lafreniere with a short pass into the slot and he took advantage of some traffic on front of Ravensbergen to wire in a low shot. That was the 23rd goal and 51st point for the 18-year-old rookie from Hornby Island.
The Cougars restored their two-goal lead with the teams skating 4-on-4. Defenceman Carson Carels laid a shot on goalie Logan Edmonstone and the puck kicked out to Parascak, who shoveled a goalmouth pass to a wide-open Borya Valis and he had an open net to fire in his 29th.
For Parascak, it was his second point of the night. But he wasn’t done.
Three minutes after Valis scored, Carels chipped the puck up to Parascak in full flight moving along the right wing boards to create a 2-on-1 with Heidt and he found the tape of his centreman’s blade for a 4-1 lead.
The Blazers got one of those back in the opening minute of the third period, with Kmec cooling his heels in the penalty box after he shot the puck over the glass.. Finnie deflected a shot-pass from former Cougar Oren Shtrom in over Josh Ravensbergen’s near-side shoulder.
The Cougar goalie was excellent down the stretch and stood his ground turning aside at least a handful of great scoring chances late in the game while Heidt was serving a tripping call.
Led by 20-year-old Bauer Dumanski, and Kmec, 21, the Cougars defence used its muscle and smart stick to keep the Blazers from hanging around too long to pick up any loose pucks left near the danger zone and they held the Kamloops snipers to just two goals.
“Rav’s a great goalie and it’s good to have him behind is and the D were awesome, it’s always great to see us come together and really lock it down,” said Dumanski.
“They’ve got some great players over there, a lot of skill in their front end and everyone came together at the end and we battled through it and Rave kept us in it and we got the win.”
The Cougars are healthy for the first time in a long time and that gives them plenty of options on the back end.
“It’s a huge help, it’s hard to play when you’re down bodies but you’ve got to do it,” said Dumanski. “It’s nice to have everyone back.”
If there was any fault to the Cougars’ game it’s the fact they went 0-for-4 on the power play. Cougars head coach Mark Lamb said in the postgame interview his team might be guilty of passing too much when they should shoot more but he wasn’t overly concerned and neither was Heidt.
“On the power play we’re aware we’ve got to figure it out, we’ve made a lot of changes and we’re trying,” said Heidt. “I think it’s trying a little too hard and like (Lamb) said, we’ve got to simplify things and shoot more. We’ve got a good enough group in here to turn it around.”
The Blazers (21-32-4-1) are on the outside looking in at the playoffs but are only three points behind Seattle for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference.
The Victoria Royals beat the Portland Winterhawks 6-5 in overtime in a back-and-forth game Friday. Victoria remains five points ahead of the Cougars.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars and Blazers will travel through the night to get to Kamloops, where they’ll meet in the rematch Saturday (6 p.m. start). That will be the start of five-game road trip for the Cougars. They’ll play Wednesday and Friday in Wenatchee, Saturday in Everett and Sunday at Vancouver... The Cats are back at CN Centre March 14-15 to host Wenatchee, a homecoming for Wild head coach Don Nachbaur, who grew up in Prince George. Now in his 18th WHL season, Nachbaur is the WHL’s third-winningest coach, behind Ken Hodge (742) and current Blazers associate coach Don Hay (750). Nachbaur, a native of Kitimat who has coached Seattle, Tri-City and Spokane, reached the 700-win mark Nov. 20 in Kelowna. He now has 712 in his WHL career. The Wild lost 5-1 Friday in Spokane.
