The save of the night for Seattle Thunderbirds goalie Grayson Malinoski in a 3-1 win Friday over the Prince George Cougars was one he did not have to make.
That happened 8:51 into the second period when he had Cougars sniper Riley Heidt bearing down on him on a partial breakaway. Looking for the 103rd goal of his WHL career, Heidt rifled a backhand shot along the ice that slipped through Malinoski’s legs and was on its way in.
Until T-birds defenceman Tai Riley arrived on the scene.
He got his stick blade on the puck just as it was crossing the red paint of the goal line and cleared it safely away to preserve Seattle’s 1-0 lead.
“That went through my legs and he took it off the goal line, that was an unreal play by Ty,” said Malinowski. “I thought it was going straight in, but I obviously got a piece of it and he made an unreal play like right on the goal line.”
Winners of five straight and eight of their nine games in December, in their CN Centre game in nearly a month the Cougars couldn’t seem to their offence in gear.
Held to just 15 shots through two periods, they did come to life in the third, outshooting Seattle 10-3, but it wasn’t enough, not with Seattle defenders plugging the shooting lanes and getting in the way of the puck and the visitors wrenched two points away from the BC Division leaders.
“They’re a good offensive team and I thought our boys were so good in the offensive zone, they blocked so many shots for me, it was unreal,” said Malinoski, a 17-year-old native of Saskatoon who won the Saskatchewan provincial 18U triple-A title with the Saskatoon Blazers in 2023.
“This one feels good for sure. They take advantage of mistakes very well, 2-on-1s and odd-man rushes and they do that very well. I just stayed patient not trying to overplay shots, get ready to move and that helped for sure.”
Malinoski stopped 24 of 25 shots to improve his record to 4-8-1.
Seattle improved to 12-22-2-1, last in the U.S. Division, while the Cougars (second in the Western Conference) dropped to 21-10-3-2.
After a scoreless evenly-played opening period, the Thunderbirds drew first blood seven minutes after the break. Seattle won the draw in the PG end and Kazden Mathies carried the puck in deep and laid a low shot on goal that trickled in off the leg of goalie Josh Ravensbergen.
The T-birds, who lost 6-4 on home ice to the Cougars on New Year’s Eve, continued to play a near-perfect road game, maintaining tight coverage in their end of the ice that limited the shots and dumbfounded their hosts, playing in front of a friendly crowd for the first time since Dec. 7.
Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb says that’s a common theme in hockey, whether it’s the NHL or a junior team returning from a long road trip. That first game back often brings out the demons that end up with a home ice loss and it was obvious early on the Cougars lacked the jump they usually display as one of the top teams in the WHL.
“I thought we had a good game structurally but we didn’t have any gas, we didn’t have energy,” said Lamb. “The guys worked hard but they came up short. We didn’t have enough and didn’t have that second and third effort.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win in the third period and the power play came up dry. We had some good looks but we didn’t have that extra shot. We haven’t seen enough consistency in the power play. We’re not confident on the power play but we’ll get it.”
The Cats went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Seattle was 0-for-1.
That Cougars’ frustration built as the second period wore on. They got the puck in close to Malinoski but fanned on their shots or were disconnected with their pass attempts.
Seattle pulled ahead 2-0 late in the period. After another face-off win in Cougar territory, Hayden Pakkala let go a point-blank shot that bounced off the chest of Ravensbergen and dropped uncovered outside the crease long enough for Pakkala to whack it in with a backhanded shot.
The Cougars final got one with 1:21 left and Ravensbergen on the bench. They poured the pressure in the Seattle end and spoiled what would have been Malinoski’s first career WHL shutout. Viliam Kmec blasted a rocket shot off the backboards that bounced out to Borya Valis and he swept it in for his 18th of the season.
Sam Charko ended the suspense with 14 seconds left, dumping a high shot into the empty Cougar cage.
LOOSE PUCKS: The crowd count was 3,964… The same teams meet again Saturday (6 p.m.) on Nickelodeon Night. The Cougars will be wearing lime green and yellow Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jerseys that are being auctioned online to raise money for the BC Children’s Hospital… That was only the second regular season home ice loss in regulation time for the Cougars since Jan. 6, 2024, when they 4-3 to Portland… T-birds centre Arjun Bawa returned to CN Centre for his first game since being acquired from the Cougars in a trade in May 2024. He played 57 games for the Cats last season after he was acquired from Red Deer halfway through the 2022-23 season. The 19-year-old from Richmond has seven goals and 15 points in 35 games with Seattle…The WHL trade deadline is Thursday, Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. PT.
