Nico Myatovic picked a fine time to come up with the first multi-point game of the season.
The Seattle Thunderbirds left winger did it in his 40th game of 2021-22 against his hometown team, the Prince George Cougars, Friday night in Kent, Wash..
Myatovic collected two assists and was picked as the game’s third star in a 7-2 stomping of the Cougars. The 17-year-old Prince George minor hockey product helped set up a goal from Leon Okonkwo Prada midway through the first period that made it a 2-0 game. Myatovic also had a hand in Jared Davidson’s 21st goal off the season, 6:50 into the third period, which made it a 5-1 game.
The 17-year-old Prince George minor hockey product, selected by Seattle in the sixth round of the WHL draft in 2019, now has a goal and 13 assists in 40 games. He scored twice in his first career WHL game, April 13, 2001 in Kent, a 4-2 win over the Tri-City Americans.
The T-birds scored three goals in the first and third periods to hand the Cougars their fourth loss in five games on their current tour of the WHL’s U.S. Division. The Cats will try to improve on their 1-3-1-0 record on the trip when it wraps up Saturday in Everett against the Western Conference-leading Silvertips.
Lukas Svejkovsky, a native of Point Roberts, Wash., led the T-birds with two goals, both in the first period in which the Cougars were outshot 15-6. Reid Schaefer made it a 4-1 just 30 seconds in to the second period. Davidson, Lucas Cina and Mathew Rempe added to the total in the third. Seattle outshot the Cougars 20-3 in the final 20 minutes and 48-22 in the game.
Cougars winger Koehn Ziemmer scored his 19th of the season late in the second period, and rookie Ryker Singer, with his fifth, capped the scoring with 52 seconds left in the third.
Ty Young took the loss in net for Prince George, making 41 saves. Thomas Milic earned the win in goal for Seattle.
The win improved the T-birds’ record to 24-11-4-1. The Cougars dropped to 18-22-2-1.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars 20-year-old defenceman Jonas Brondberg missed Friday’s game with a lower-body injury. The Cats were also without the services of injured forwards Cayden Glover and Fischer O’Brien and defenceman Aiden Reeves. Reeves had resumed skating and could be ready to return next weekend when the Cougars host the Vancouver Giants in a two-game series at CN Centre.
