Tyson Jugnauth was dealing nothing but aces to his Portland Winterhawks teammates and they combined for a winning hand Saturday at CN Centre.
His three assists got the lights flashing behind the Prince George Cougars cage and the Portland defenceman finally cashed one in himself late in the game to power the Winterhawks to a 5-2 victory that tied the WHL Western Conference quarterfinal series 1-1.
“I’m trying to contribute any way I can, trying to be good offensively and be hard to play against and hopefully I can keep that going now,” said Jugnauth, who capped the scoring with an empty-netter.
Jugnauth, the Winterhawks' captain, said his team was able to reset and get back to doing what they do best after they blew a three-goal lead and lost 7-6 in overtime to the Cougars in Game 1 Friday.
“It’s playoffs, there’s ups and downs and they got some momentum and came back — they’re a great team over there — and tonight we just learned how to shut it down, managing pucks and getting pucks in deep and I think that really paid off in our win,” said the 20-year-old Jugnauth, a Toronto native who grew up in Kelowna and was drafted by the Seattle Kraken in the fourth round in 2022.
The Winterhawks' power play was firing on all cylinders and Jugnauth was the kingpin holding it all together. He picked up his third assist when he gave himself time to aim a low shot purposely wide where ‘Hawks centre Kyle Chyzowski was waiting to pick the puck out of the air and deflect it in for a 3-1 Portland lead, the game-winning goal 8:12 into the second period.
The Winterhawks took the sellout crowd of 6,016 out of the game for much of it. The fans were still loud, but the Cougars did not give them much to cheer about.
“That was our goal coming in here getting the split and with the crowd you could see how exciting and electric it is in there and every time you step over the boards it’s kind of an eyeopener the first time but now that we played series last year you kind of get a feel for what that is,” said Jugnauth.
“Yesterday, when they got going it helped them a lot and it also helps us when we can quiet them right away.”
Diego Buttazzoni ended the suspense with his second goal of the night with less than three minutes to play. With time running out and the Cougars trailing 3-2, Buttazzoni stripped the puck off the stick of Cougar defenceman Bauer Dumanski and took off on a breakaway. Buttazzoni had enough speed to put a deke out Viliam Kmec as he rushed the net and lifted a perfect backhander over the shoulder of Josh Ravensbergen. If the WHL is looking for a highlight goal of the night that was it.
“I just got that turnover there and saw a lot of space and then I saw the d-man (Kmec) coming at me and made a move and luckily it went through his stick and put it on net and it was nice,” said the Buttazzoni, who had 38 goals and 77 points in 63 games this season and is generating plenty of interest from NHL scouts plotting for the June draft.
“Last night was a bit of piss-off, them coming back, they played a solid game and it was a good game all around but you can’t give up those leads in the playoffs. So tonight we just beared down and were just a bit more simple and played our game.”
“It’s a big win, we’ve got a little bit of momentum going home now. Hopefully we’ll get some good crowds there and feed off that energy.”
The Winterhawks opened the scoring on an early power play with Buttazzoni blasting a one-timer from the circle, set up perfectly from pointman Jugnauth, a carbon-copy of the goal Buttazzoni scored in the second period of Game 1.
The Cougars countered four minutes later. Leith Hunter’s shot from the side produced a fat rebound for Evan Groening standing just off the post and the third-year veteran from Niverville, Man., swatted it in for his first career WHL playoff goal. Groening was playing on a line with signed NHL prospects Riley Heidt and Koehn Ziemmer and did not disappoint.
The most telling stat other than the score was the power-play chances. Portland scored on two of its three opportunities and the Cougars were 0-for-3. They moved the puck well, especially on their third chance, and generated shots on net but none that got behind Ondrej Stebetak, who made 31 saves for his first WHL playoff win.
“The difference was special teams, they get a couple and we didn’t get any on our power play,” said Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb. “Our power play’s got to score us goals.
“There was a lot of good in our game but it’s just not good enough when you’re in playoffs. Our top guys have to be our top guys every night, just like theirs were. It wasn’t a game where we were really on top of our game in a lot of areas and that has a lot to do with a good team over there too. I thought their third period was smart, they played with that lead and didn’t give us a lot and didn’t give us any outnumbered rushes. They know how to play hockey.”
Portland started all three periods looking confident and dangerous and they got their shots through but there was no signs of Prince George goalie Josh Ravensbergen cracking under the pressure, coming off a sub-par performance in Game 1 when he was yanked early in the second period after giving up four goals on 19 shots. He could not be faulted on any of the Portland goals.
In sharp contrast to their tentative start in Friday’s game, the Cougars looked much more comfortable in the surroundings playing in front of sold-out barn and while the Winterhawks generated more quality chances the teams played at much more even keel, both seizing opportunities to finish their checks and establish a physical presence. It’s the playoffs, why wouldn’t they?
Portland retook the lead late in the period. Buttazzoni’s shot from close to the net gave Ravensbergen trouble and was laying on the goal line briefly uncovered before the Cougars finally cleared it. Jugnauth held the puck in at the line and gave it to Jordan Duguay and he found a small sliver of net and deposited a high shot in from a sharp angle.
Portland controlled the flow through much of the first half of the second period but that all changed after the media timeout. Koehn Ziemmer won the face-off and the puck went back to Dumanski and he slid it over to Kmec for a hard low slapper that cut the gap to 3-2.
But that’s as close as it got for the Cougars.
The next three games are in Portland as the series resumes Tuesday, with Game 4 to follow on Wednesday and Game 5 set for Friday. If the series beyond five games, the Cougars would host Game 6 on Sunday, April 5 and Game 7 on Monday, April 6 at the CN Centre.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re playing, it’s playoff hockey and you’ve got to win,” said Lamb.
