How fitting that in his last regular season game with the Prince George Cougars, on the last play of their game Saturday against the Victoria Royals, Koehn Ziemmer would be the guy to end it.
He scored the 4-3 winner, 2:14 into overtime.
The 20-year-old Ziemmer, the all-time scoring leader in the team’s 31-year Prince George history had an easy time of it, collecting the team-record 128th goal of his WHL career into an open net when the puck centred out of the corner by Viliam Kmec caromed off the skate teammate Ben Riche to a wide-open Ziemmer.
“Especially with it being the last one, going into it, there was a lot of emotions going into the game,” said Ziemmer, who broke Chase Witala’s career record of 120 goals a few weeks ago. “If that’s the way to end it I can’t complain there.”
For Ziemmer, a native of Mayerthorpe, Alta,., chosen fourth overall by the Cougars in the 2019 WHL Prospects Draft, the 244 regular-season games he played over five seasons were productive almost from the start.
He’d only played two games as a callup from minor hockey in St. Albert in 2019-20 when he scored his first career WHL goal the following year in the Cougars’ first game of the pandemic-shortened season, March 27, 2021 in Kamloops.
The Cougars took their lumps in the early years of Ziemmer’s career. They didn’t make the playoffs until 2022 and that was just a short stay before they were eliminated by Portland in a four-game series. Now, on the verge of his fourth straight playoff appearance, Ziemmer’s going in as a record-setter on a team good enough to remain in the hunt for a division title until the second-last day of the season.
“It got turned around when I came in and we got better and better every year and it’s a credit to the organization and all the teammates I’ve been through, they’ve helped us a lot and it’s been an honour to play with all of them,” said Ziemmer.
Ziemmer broke his leg in a game in late November 2023 and came back in time for a three-game stint leading into last-year’s playoffs. But he wasn’t up to his true capabilities as a power winger and despite that the Cougars got to the fourth round, eventually losing to Portland in a six-game Western Conference championships series.
Ziemmer had been drafted the previous summer by the Los Angeles Kings in the third round and nobody expected him to return to the Cats as an overager this season, but the injury setback actually worked in favour of his return to the WHL for one more year of seasoning before he turns pro.
“That year last year was kind of a wash, especially coming back for playoffs and not being at 100 per cent and to go through the ups and downs with this team, it’s been a helluva year and now we’re going into playoffs,” he said.
The Royals already got what they came for on Friday night when they beat the Cougars 5-3 to wrap up the BC Division championship, a goal that was within the grasp of either team when the weekend began.
“We didn’t get what we wanted yesterday and this game didn’t mean anything,” said Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb.
But with a near-capacity crowd of 5,946 on hand at CN Centre for the rematch, including most of the Cougar players’ parents, it was sweet for Cougar supporters to celebrate one more victory on home ice before the playoffs begin on Friday against the Portland Winterhawks.
“It was nice to get through the game without any injuries or anything and get a win and it was nice that Ziemmer got the goal,” said Lamb. “It’s his last regular season game, he’s an overage, he won’t be back, but he’s our leading goalscorer and it was a nice way to end it.
“We wouldn’t have got him back but that injury put him back a bit and look what he’s done.”
The Cougars led 2-1 after the first period.
Evan Groening, on a behind-the-net feed from Riley Heidt, and Aiden Foster, on a tip-in each found the net behind Jayden Kraus.
The Cougars had the first six shots of the game before Royals Nolan Stewart kickstarted the Victoria offence.
Alexey Chichkin started the second period with a high shot from the point that sailed on over the shoulder of Kraus for a 3-1 lead. But the Royals’ power play, ranked No. 2 in the WHL, struck twice to get the visitors back on even terms.
Trade deadline pickup Brandon Lisowksky chipped in a goalmouth pass from Reggie Neumann – the 40th goal of the season for the former Saskatoon Blade. That came 6:53 into the second period.
The Cougars were on the kill just shy of the two-minute mark in the third period when Matteo Danis clearing attempt landed on the stick of Victoria defenceman Nate Misskey, who fed it to D partner Keaton Verhoeff and he fired it in from the point to tie it up 3-3 with the only goal of the third period.
The Cougars outshot the Royals 17-7 in the third period and 36-24 through three periods.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Royals, having already clinched the division title Friday, rested some of their big guns, giving the night off to forwards Teydon Trembecky, Kenta Isogai, Cole Reschny and defenceman Cosmo Wilson… The Cougars (41-21-4-2) won 10 of their last 12 games and finished fourth in the Western Conference and will host Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference quarterfinal series against the fifth-place Portland Winterhawks (36-28-3-1). That series will follow a 2-3-2 format with Games 3, 4 and (if needed) 5 in Portland on the following Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. There’s a quick turnaround in it goes to Games 6 and 7, which would follow Sunday, April 6 and Monday, April 7 in Prince George … The Prince Albert Raiders defeated the Saskatoon Blades 3-2 Saturday to claim top spot in the Eastern Division, one point ahead of the Brandon Wheat Kings. The Raiders and Blades started the game tied in points, each with 92… The Mega 50-50 draw reached a record $204,000. The winner collected $102,000. The other half goes to the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation to support cardiac care.... THe Cougars are hosting a pre-playoff barbecue this Tuesday from 4-6 p.m. in the CN Centre parking lot.
