BY COLE WALDIE
Prince George Cougars
The Prince George Cougars held serve on home ice after a 5-0 blanking of the Kelowna Rockets, Saturday at the CN Centre. The Cats now take a 2-0 series heading into Kelowna for Game 3 on Tuesday at Prospera Place.
Josh Ravensbergen delivered his second career WHL playoff shutout in as many nights, making 16 saves on 16 Kelowna shots. Riley Heidt, Viliam Kmec, Zac Funk, Borya Valis, and Oren Shtrom supplied the Cougar offence in the Game 2 victory.
GOALS
1st Period
1-0 Cougars at 1:49 – Riley Heidt (1), unassisted // Riley Heidt was able to pick up a Rocket turnover at neutral ice, and the Minnesota Wild prospect carried the puck to the bottom of the left circle and banked the puck off of Jari Kykkanen and into the goal to put Prince George ahead early.
2-0 Cougars at 3:58 – Viliam Kmec (3), assisted by Terik Parascak and Riley Heidt // For the second consecutive night, the Cats were able to gain an odd-man rush down a man. This time it was Terik Parascak shooting a puck that was initially stopped by Kykkanen and blue-liner Viliam Kmec picked up the loose change at the right wing and tapped it by the Rocket netminder to make it 2-0 Prince George.
2nd Period
3-0 Cougars at 11:15– Zac Funk (4), assisted by Koehn Ziemmer // The Cougars continued to develop odd man rushes and this time it was Koehn Ziemmer who received a breakaway pass from Zac Funk that was initially stopped by Kykkanen, however, Funk picked up the rebound and slid the puck by Kykkanen to extend the PG lead to three.
3rd Period
4-0 Cougars at 0:46 – Borya Valis (4), assisted by Ondrej Becher and Hudson Thornton // PG continued to add on as Borya Valis received a breakaway feed from Ondrej Becher and Valis made no mistake going to his forehand and sliding it by Kykkanen to give Prince George a 4-0 lead.
5-0 Cougars at 14:39 – Oren Shtrom (2), assisted by Koehn Ziemmer // Koehn Ziemmer picked up the puck behind the Kelowna goal and was able to centre the puck in front of the net, and it was eventually tapped home by Oren Shtrom who netted the Cougars’ fifth goal of the game.