Diego Buttazzoni was the Portland heartbreaker.
The Portland Winterhawks forward ended the longest game in Prince George Cougars’ history Wednesday night in Portland, Ore., when he scored 17:57 into the second overtime period to seal a 5-4 victory that puts the Cougars on the brink of playoff elimination.
Buttazzoni was sprung free on a lead pass from Portland captain Kyle Chyzowski that bounced off the end boards and he raced to catch the carom and slapped the puck through the legs of goalie Josh Ravensbergen for the gamewinner.
That gives the Winterhawks a 3-1 lead in the WHL Western Conference quarterfinal with a chance to wrap up the series Friday night in Portland.
The goal came not long after the Cougars had several glorious chances to end it on a power play, but Portland goalie Ondrej Sebetak saved the day for the Winterhawks. In a mad flurry around the Portland net he made a glove save on Borya Valis, did the splits to rob Terik Parascak, then came up with another pad save to deny Lee Shurgot. Just after that, Koehn Ziemmer missed the puck facing a wide-open cage.
Shots were 56-53 in the Winterhawks’ favour.
The Cougars endured two power plays in the first overtime and somehow held up to the punishment.
In that second Portland power play, Ravensbergen was superb in goal but it was defenceman Corbin Vaughan who came up with one of the best saves of the night with Tyson Jugnauth looking to be the hero. Jugnauth had Ravensbergen beaten with a move at the side of the net but he could not get the puck past Vaughan, who took over the crease and dove to get his glove in the way and absorb Jugnauth’s scoring try late to keep the Cougars in the game.
The Cougars survived another two-minute disadvantage six minutes into OT and once again it was their shot-blockers, including Ravensbergen, who bailed them out. They fearlessly sacrificed their bodies to absorb some bullet shots as the Winterhawks buzzed the net.
Cougars skaters, not including Ravensbergen, blocked no fewer than seven Portland shots in the first overtime. Despite that, the Winterhawks still managed to outshoot the Cougars 15-7 in that 20-minute stretch.
The Cats were 24.6 seconds away from leaving the ice with a 4-3 win when the Winterhawks rallied for the tying goal with six attackers. Ryan Miller jumped on a rebound in the crease and put it through the legs of Ravensbergen to tie it 4-4.
That came 80 seconds after 16-year-old Cougar defenceman Carson Carels gave them their first lead of the game during their third power-play goal of the night. With traffic in front, Carels let it go from the left point to hit the net — the first career playoff goal for the native of Cypress River, Man.
But the lead was shortlived. Despite dominating the play through much of the third period they were unable to hold off the Winterhawks’ late surge with Sebetak on the bench for the extra skater.
Heading into the third period, the teams were tied 2-2 when the Winterhawks got the jump in their usual way - scoring on the power play. With Ben Riche off for hooking, the Cougars were 17 seconds away from killing it off and had held the Winterhawks at bay when Hudson Darby got to the rebound just in front of Ravensbergen and buried it to restore the Portland lead.
However, the Winterhawks got themselves into trouble six minutes into third when Kyle McDonaugh left Viliam Kmec bloody with a high-stick to the face. Early in the four-minute power play Ziemmer got the puck in the left circle and fired it through the legs of Sebetek – the second power-play goal of the game for Prince George to equalize the count.
The game lasted nearly 4 1/2 hours.
The Cougars started it facing a two-strike count.
Captain Riley Heidt, their leading scorer this season and all-time leading pointgetter, was suspended for one game for his illegal cross-check late in Tuesday’s game.
Bauer Dumanski, one of their anchors on defence, who had two goals in the series, was a late scratch due to an undetermined injury.
"It's a tough way to end it with guys out of the lineup and guys coming in who haven't played tons and they stepped up and took roles that they're not normally used to — that's hockey and that's playoffs and give these boys tons of credit," said Cougars assistant coach Carter Rigby.
"A lot of people know this league and everybody's doubting us and the boys gave it everything they've got tonight. That overtime, Ravs, that's the goalie we know. There's a kid that's ranked Number 1 in North America for a reason and there's a kid that competes every single day in practice and gives us everything.Rav did his job, gave us a chance to win and unfortunately we couldn't help him out and get the win for him."
The Cougars created some great offensive momentum right off the hop and had the ‘Hawks pinned in their own zone for the first minute or so, but that all went for naught when Ziemmer took an ill-advised penalty for cross-checking a Winterhawk from behind on the backcheck. The Portland power play, which scored five goals in the first three games, didn’t take long to get their sixth. Forty-four seconds into the penalty, Carter Sotheran let go a point shot with two players standing in front and the puck slid through the legs of Ravensbergen just 2:16 into the game.
Ravensbergen bailed his team out later in the period on another power play when he got down for a split-legged pad save to deny Chyzowski after a shot deflected right to the Winterhawks’ leading pointgetter this season.
Right after that kill, the Cougars pounced on a turnover when Jugnauth’s clearing pass ticked off a Portland skater and Ziemmer got the puck over to Valis, who knocked down the deflected pass and ripped a wrister into the net for his second goal of the playoffs.
But only a minute later, Jugnauth let go a shot from the point that ticked off the stick of Chyzowski standing at the top of the circle and it sailed into the net for a 2-1 Portland lead with only a minute left in the period.
The Cougars had yet to score a power play goal (0-for-8) after three games and they finally ended that jinx 18:33 into the second period. With just nine seconds left in their first power play of the game, Carels took the puck from Vaughan at the blueline and let the shot rip and Matteo Danis got his stick on the rebound and while lunging he went wide on his backhand side and tucked the puck in behind Sebetak to tie it up.
It was the first period other than overtime in Game 1 in which the Winterhawks did not score and the Cougars made that happen showing much better puck possession in all zones and maintaining a strong forecheck. Inspired by their smart penalty-killing and Ravenbergen’s stellar play in net the Cougars got what they deserved - a real chance of deadlocking the series.
The Winterhawks went 2-for-7 on the power play and the Cougars were 3-for-5.
Rigby says his team will do everything it can to send the series back to Prince George for game 6 Sunday and a Game 7 on Monday and they will have Heidt, their leading scorer, back for Friday's game.
"Heidt is a big part of this group and we're going to need him and 19 others on Friday night to make sure we take this thing back to Prince George," said Rigby. "This is a tough one, a stinger for sure, but we're not done and the season's not over. We're a proud group and I know everybody back home at CN (Centre) and wherever they are, are cheering us and we're going to come back with a win."
LOOSE PUCKS: The season is over for the Saskatoon Blades. They lost 6-2 to the Calgary Hitmen Wednesday in Saskatoon and were swept in four straight. In other Eastern Conference playoff results, the Edmonton Oil Kings defeated the Prince Albert Raiders to take a 3-1 series stranglehold in Prince Albert and the Brandon Wheat Kings staved off elimination with a 6-4 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes ... In Langley, the Vancouver Giants got a goal from Connor Levis 10:21 into the third period to defeat the Spokane Chiefs 3-2. Spokane leads that series 2-1. In Kennewick, Wash., the Tri-City Americans kept their season alive with a 6-4 win over the Victoria Royals. That series resumes Friday in Kennewick with the Americans trailing 3-1.
