Koehn Ziemmer’s two-goal, three-point effort was not enough to stop the Portland Winterhawks.
Diego Buttazzoni ended a thrilling overtime session when he lifted a backhand deke into the net behind Joshua Ravensbergen to seal a 4-3 victory Tuesday in front of a crowd of 3,153 at CN Centre.
Ryder Thompson, Josh Zakreski and Tyson Yaremko also scored for Portland (5-1-0-0), as the Winterhawks recorded their second-straight one-goal win over the Cougars.
On the day the 19-year-old Ziemmer returned to the Prince George Cougars lineup from the Los Angeles Kings’ camp, the Cougars traded away one of their other overage players, Carlin Dezainde, to create a spot for Ziemmer on the roster.
Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb said being forced to suddenly say goodbye to the popular Dezainde was an obvious downer for the players that affected their game performance.
“It’s a tough day for a lot of guys in the room,” Lamb said in a postgame interview.
‘We got a lot of stuff going on on the business side with making trades and stuff like that, and I think that had a lot to do with it.
“I’ve been around for a while, I’m not used to this, I don’t like that at all, especially when you’re getting rid of a good person that’s really grown right under you. You get tight to these players, just like they get tight to you, and you go through battles together. It was a terrible day.”
Ziemmer kickstarted the Cougar offence with the game’s opening goal 55 seconds in, pouncing on a rebound in front of the Portland net. Hunter Laing made it a 2-0 game a few minutes later, potting another rebound after Ondrej Stebetak made a point-shot save.
Yaremko gave the visitors the lead 12:17 into the third period when he put on a burst of speed and outmuscled two Cougar defenders to get a shot away that found the corner of the net.
That came after Ziemmer was denied twice on glorious scoring chances to start the third period, including a breakaway misfire.
Ziemmer’s tying goal at 19:17 came with Ravensbergen on the bench for the extra skater. Ziemmer cradled a pass from Borya Valis in the slot and flipped a backhander that sailed in over Stebetak’s shoulder.
Prince George outshot Portland 33-31. The Cougars (4-2-2-0) gained a point to move into a four-way tie with Everett, Spokane and Portland for first place in the Western Conference.
The Cougars, who lost 3-2 to the Winterhawks Saturday in Portland, will host them again tonight at CN Centre.
Game time is 7 p.m.
