fter watching their two-goal lead evaporate in the third period, the Prince George Cougars needed someone to bail them out of the jam the Wenatchee Wild had gotten them into.
Borya Valis was that guy.
He raised his hand as if to say, “Hold my water bottle,” then joined the rush into the Wenatchee zone. Riley Heidt took off along the right wing and dished the puck to Carson Carels, who was cruising across the slot. Carels backhanded the puck to Valis, who dragged it across the crease and, while falling, tucked it wide around goalie Brendan Gee.
That goal, with less than four minutes left, was the 34th of the season for the 20-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs prospect and helped secure the Cougars’ ninth win in 10 games. But they weren’t done yet. Aiden Foster added an empty-net goal, much to the crowd’s delight, sealing a 5-3 victory.
Carels, the Cougars’ standout 16-year-old rookie defenceman, notched the second three-assist game of his young WHL career and played a crucial role in keeping the Cougars first in the BC Division as they head into the final week of the regular season.
“It felt really good, especially when they came back like that. We needed a jump, and we got that break, and it went in,” said Carels. “We work on those 3-on-2 entries a lot, and I guess it’s just creativity at that point—go with your nerves and instincts. (Valis) was calling for it, so I found him, and it went in, so it was good.”
Carels, who played seven games last season as a 15-year-old but not in the playoffs, knows he will have a major role in determining how far the Cougars go in the postseason.
“Right now, I’m just so much more comfortable. Jimmy (associate coach Playfair) and the whole team have been such a help in getting me to this point, where I’m comfortable like that,” Carels said. “I’m just going to bring my game, and the team’s going to bring their game, and we’ll get as far as we can.
“(Playfair) just pushes us to do the right things and trains us like NHL defencemen. That’s the best thing he can do. On the bench, he just lets us play, gives us our pointers, and lets us go. He’s the best.”
It was a carbon-copy start for the Cougars, who beat Wenatchee 4-2 on Friday. Just as they did in that game, they opened the scoring on the power play with their first shot of the game.
Poster boy Koehn Ziemmer, whose accomplishments as the all-time leading Prince George Cougars goal scorer were featured on a poster handed out to fans entering the rink, took a pass from Carels while standing in the left circle and picked the far corner low on goalie Gee. It was Ziemmer’s team-leading 36th goal of the season and, with it, he broke Dana Tyrell’s team record for most career power-play goals.
Riley Heidt drew the second assist, the 250th of his WHL career, and one of four assists in the game for the Cougar captain.
Ziemmer’s goal came six minutes into the game, and the Cougars didn’t get another shot until much later in the period. The Wild took control, holding the puck and keeping the pressure on goalie Cooper Michaluk. Wenatchee capitalized on that territorial advantage when Dawson Seitz finished a 2-on-1 break with a low shot under Michaluk’s glove to tie the game 1-1.
The shots were 11-4 in Wenatchee’s favour when 16-year-old defenceman Daniel Vaillant, playing his first WHL game after being called up from the U18 Calgary Buffaloes, got caught for tripping. The Cougars made the Wild pay for the penalty. Heidt spotted Viliam Kmec jumping into the play from his blueline position and fed him a perfect pass in the circle. Kmec scored his 18th goal of the season, moving closer to the 20-goal mark for defencemen.
That goal came just before the intermission, and the Cougars quickly padded their lead.
Cooper Michaluk had just bailed them out with an electrifying glove save to deny Luka Scherbyna after defenceman Alexey Chichkin fell while trying to clear the puck. Moments later, Matteo Danis fired a routine wrister on goal, and the puck deflected in off Wild goalie Gee’s trapper.
Three goals on nine shots for a 33.3 per cent scoring rate — quality trumped quantity for the Cougars at that point, 6:39 into the second period.
Evan Friesen made it a 3-2 game with his third goal of the weekend on a rebound at 8:15. Four minutes later, Wild captain Friesen tipped in a shot from defenceman Eastyn Mannix for his fourth goal of the weekend to tie the game 3-3, but it wasn’t enough for the visitors.
“We kind of built off (Friday),” said Friesen, the 20-year-old Wild captain. “That was a hard game, giving up that 2-on-1 that won it, and I thought today we had a bit of anger in our game. We played a full 60, but some bounces didn’t go our way.”
“It’s tough coming up short. We’re trying to push for the playoffs, and we need every point we can get. This is a tough loss.”
Michaluk played a key role in the win, making timely saves to keep the Wild off the scoresheet, especially when the Cougars were getting outplayed early.
“They’re a tough team to play against, and we came out on top, so I’m very happy for the guys,” said Cougars head coach Mark Lamb. “We’re sitting in second spot, we control our destiny, and it’s all good.”
In Langley, the Victoria Royals found their winning edge on Saturday, beating the Vancouver Giants 4-3 to remain two points back of the Cougars in the BC Division race. The Royals have four games left, while the Cougars are down to their last two. Victoria plays in Kamloops Tuesday, Kelowna on Wednesday, then heads to Prince George for the season-ending series with the Cougars on Friday and Saturday.
Regardless of what happens in Kamloops and Kelowna, the Cougars can wrap up their second consecutive BC Division title if they beat the Royals twice in regulation.
“It’s going to be fun,” said Lamb. “It’s going to be two great games that are very meaningful, no different than this one was. They’re all playoff games now, and we’re gaining experience all the time.”
Wenatchee lost for the fourth time in 10 days to the Cougars, with all the games being close.
The ninth-place Wild (22-35-7-1) are not mathematically eliminated but will need to beat Everett twice this weekend and have Seattle lose all four of its remaining games.
“Our team’s all beat up. I had a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old playing defence for us tonight,” said Wild head coach Don Nachbaur. “We had our top guys sitting out, and we played hard. We had them at 3-3 and let them off the hook. We’ve done that a lot this year. But trying to learn how to win — that’s in the future for us. But we worked hard, we competed hard, and we were full marks for being where we were with five or six minutes left in the game.”
The Cougars (40-20-4-2) reached the 40-win plateau for the second straight season while improving their home record to 23-4-3-2. Lamb won his 400th WHL game Friday, having also coached the Swift Current Broncos for seven seasons from 2009-16.
“I don’t put a lot into it, but it is a lot, especially since I’ve been here building the team,” said the 60-year-old Lamb. “It’s been a special three or four years now, and I’m very proud of the 400 wins, especially the wins that came with the guys that I came here with.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Cougars winger Terik Parascak missed his third game with an upper-body injury since getting hurt in Everett. Lamb says he'll likely be ready to return for the season finale against Victoria...Cougars left winger Evan Groening returned the lineup after serving a four-game suspension… Tri-City Americans defenceman Terrell Goldsmith of Fort St. James was released from the hospital Thursday in Kennewick, Wash., after he was knocked unconscious when he fell face-first to the ice after getting punched in the face by Seattle Thunderbirds Ashton Cumby during a fight just after the face-off to start the second period of Tuesday’s game. Goldsmith’s helmet popped off during the fight, which exposed his head and he was stretchered off the ice and spent the next two days in the hospital but he’s since returned to his billet home. Tuesday's game was suspended and will be rescheduled…. Prince George native Cameron Schmidt had a goal and two assists for the Giants in Saturday’s loss to the Royals, after a two-goal, one-assist game the previous night in Victoria. He leads the Giants with 39 goals and 76 points in 58 games.
