Monday night games and dates with the Victoria Royals have suited the Prince George Cougars well this season.
So on a night when a super moon was rising over the planet, the stars did align for the Cougars, who ended a four-game losing streak with a disciplined 4-1 victory over the Royals Monday in the WHL hub in Kamloops.
That gives them three out of four Monday night wins in 2021 and they’ve now beaten the Royals in three of their four meetings this season.
The Cougars got goals Kyren Gronick, Ethan Browne, Jonny Hooker and Craig Armstrong to pick up their fifth win in 14 games this season. The Cats (5-7-1-1) moved back into third place in the B.C. Division, two points ahead of the idle Kelowna Rockets. It was the ninth consecutive loss for the Royals (1-12-1-0).
Taylor Gauthier made 25 saves to earn his third win in nine games this season. The Cougars protected him well with a strong commitment to defence, rarely allowing second-shot opportunities. Aggressive forechecking and physical play in front of Royals goalie Adam Evanoff turned the game in the Cougars’ favour.
Gronick drew first blood 5:51 into the game, cashing in a point shot rebound on a pass through the slot fed to him by Ethan Browne. They combined to make to a 2-0 game 14 minutes into the period on the Cougars’ first power play of the game. Gronick drew the penalty with a power move to get around defenceman Matthew Smith. On the initial rush with the man advantage he got the puck in deep and his pass into the middle ticked off a skate to Browne, who skated across the crease and hoisted a backhander in behind Evanoff.
Hooker increased the lead to 3-0 at the 11-minute mark of the second period on a give-and-go play with linemate Koehn Ziemmer. They passed back and forth to each other several times before Ziemmer put the puck through the crease for Hooker while standing on the goal line. It hit the stick of defenceman Braden Smith before it got to Hooker and he buried his sixth of the season into the net.
Evanoff kept the game from getting out of hand with a pair of diving breakaway saves in the second period to stop Blake Eastman and Browne, who was a constant scoring threat as the game’s first star. Gauthier didn’t get much work until late in the period. In fact, the Royals didn’t get their first second-period shot on him until the 12-minute mark. But he earned his keep with back-to-back blocks to deny Gannon Laroque, on a partial break, and Bryaden Shuurman, who followed up on the rebound.
The Royals finally put one behind Gauthier 5:44 into the third. Rookie Trentyn Crane collected his second career WHL goal and second this season against the Cougars, snapping in a back-door pass from Carter Dereniwsky. Armstrong had an answer for that a few minutes later getting to the rebound of a Jack Sander shot from the point. The puck came to Sander after a couple enthusiastic bodychecks from Armstrong in the Victoria end forced the Royals to rush their clearing attempt.
The Cougars took just one minor penalty in the game and prevented the Royals from getting a sniff at the net during the two-minute advantage.
The Cats are in for a tough test Wednesday night (7 p.m.) in Kamloops when they take on the B.C. Division-leading Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers (11-2-0-0) are on a four-game winning streak as they head into their next game Tuesday night against the second-place Vancouver Giants (9-5-0-0).
LOOSE PUCKS: Cougar goalie Tyler Brennan is one of three goalies on the Team Canada roster at the IIHF World Under-18 Hockey Championship in Texas. The 10-team tournament began Monday in Frisco and Plano, but Canada won’t play until Tuesday when they face Sweden (6 p.m. PT, TSN). The Swedes, the defending U18 world champions, opened with a 5-1 win over Belarus… The Canadian roster includes three forwards touted as potential first-overall NHL draft picks. Dylan Guenther, a 2021 draft-eligible centre born in 2003, scored 12 goals and had 12 assists in 12 games this season playing right wing for the Edmonton Oil Kings. Another WHL star to watch is Connor Bedard, the 15-year-old phenom who put up 12 goals and 28 points in 15 games playing centre this year with the Regina Pats. The North Vancouver native won’t be eligible until 2023. Burlington, Ont., native Shane Wright will likely centre the top line for Canada despite not having played a game in more than a year. Wright, who won’t be ripe for the draft until 2022, suited up in 58 games in the OHL in 2019-20 as a 16-year-old for the Kingston Frontenacs and finished with 39 goals and 66 points. The OHL canceled its season this year… Monday’s game marked the WHL debut for Royals defenceman Ryan Spizawka, a 17-year-old Victoria native, whose identical twin brother Jason also plays defence for Victoria… Gronick now has five goals and five assists in 14 games, tied with Armstrong and Hooker, each with 10 points atop the Cougars scoring list. The 17-year-old Regina native has been potent point producer throughout his hockey career and was a high pick of the Cougars in the 2019 WHL draft, selected in the second round, 26th overall and the 2004-born right winger signed with the Cats that July. He scored 15 goals and had 49 points in 38 games last season for the Regina Pat Canadians U18 triple-A team and picked up five goals and 13 points in six playoff games. He returned to the Pat Canadians in the fall and had three goals and 11 assists in just seven games before the midget season was cancelled due to pandemic-related travel bans.
