We all know Villiam Kmec is a goal scorer, an above-average playmaker who draws his share of assists.
What we didn’t know is that he also knows how to duke it out.
Kelowna Rockets captain Max Graham learned that the hard way when he lost a close decision to the 20-year-old Cougars defenceman before Friday’s game at CN Centre was 10 minutes old.
Kmec’s swinging fists obviously hurt, but not as much as the damage he did with his stick.
The native of Kosice, Slovakia opening the scoring with his fourth of the season and set up rookie Lee Shurgot late in the opening period to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick.
That power-play goal with just eight ticks left in the first period gave Prince George a 3-1 lead and they went on to defeat the Rockets 4-3 in front of 3,323 spectators.
Josh Ravensbergen made 31 saves in a terrific effort to earn his 11th win of the season.
The Cougars were outplayed and gave up a ton of Grade-A chances, especially in the second period while being outshot 21-6, but scored when they needed to extend their point streak to eight games. They continue to lead the BC Division, improving to 12-4-3-2. Kelowna dropped to 7-8-1-0.
The Rockets outshot the Cougars 34-23 in the game, but Ravensbergen obviously had their number, making spectacular saves, seemingly never caught out of position and was a master with his rebound control. He made seven saves alone off Tij Iginla, Utah’s sixth-overall pick in the 2024 draft.
“I thought Ravensbergen was outstanding , I thought they took the play to us, It certainly wasn’t our best but we’ll take the two points and move on to tomorrow,” said Cougars head coach Mark Lamb.
Ravensbergen had the help of a goalpost in each of the first two periods, close-calls for NHL-calibre shooters Iginla and Andrew Cristall.
Ravensbergen is doing all he can to earn an invitation to Canada’s world junior camp, having attended the summer showcase. He will represent the Cougars at the two-game CHL USA Prospects Challenge in London, Ont., and Oshawa, Ont., Nov. 26-27.
Defenceman Carson Carels returned to the Cougar lineup after in his first game back since helping Canada White win silver at the U17 World Challenge in Sarnia, Ont. The pride of Cypress River, Man., picked up another puck to add to his mantlepiece when he scored his first career WHL goal 5:46 into the game.
Carels ventured into the attacking zone and took a crisp pass from Terik Paracas in the left circle and fired in a wrister behind Jari Kikkanen to open up a 2-0 lead.
The Rockets were held to just seven shots in the first period and one of them, a slot shot from Kanjyu Gojsic, found its way into the net.
Kelowna made it a one-goal game again in the second period after Ravensbergen got down to his knees to get the pad in the way of Crystall’s wicked blast. The rebound kicked out to Caden Price and he swept it into the net to make it a 3-2 count.
The Cougar power play came through again, two minutes after Price’s strike. Shurgot, filling in for the injured Riley Heidt, passed in deep for Terik Parascak and without stopping the puck he pushed it over to Koehn Ziemmer standing just off the post and he snapped it in for his team-leading 18th of the season.
Ziemmer, the reigning WHL player of the week, now has 12 goals in his last six games.
Parascak got nailed facefirst into the corner boards with 8:57 left in the third period and had to be helped off the ice when he was hit from behind by Price and that resulted in a four-minute power play for the Cats.
Lamb raved about the play of Kmec, who signed a free agent pro contract this summer with the Vegas Golden Knights and was surprisingly returned to the Cougars as an overager this season. The coach was impressed with how he handled the six-foot-three, 209-pound Graham in the trenches.
“He’s the ultimate team guy, the guy he fought I think he led the league in penalty minutes, he’s a big tough guy and Villiam, it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t puck his spots and good for him,” said Lamb.
LOOSE PUCKS: The rematch at CN Centre Saturday starts at 6 p.m. Heidt is listed as a day-to-day injury, the result of getting high-sticked in Sunday’s game against Vancouver that knocked out a couple of his teeth and required surgery… Cougar D Ephram McNutt also remained sidelined with an upper-body injury.
