So close but yet so far.
Despite one of their best efforts of the season, the Everett Silvertips found a way to knock down the CHL’s top-rated team.
A pair of goals by Austin Roest and a 36-save effort from Ethan Chadwick, the Silvertips edged the Prince George Cougars by a 4-3 score in front of 2,450 fans at CN Centre on Tuesday.
“That’s big for us. Anytime you go on the road and play these games you want to see a split and it was good to get that tonight,” added Roest.
“PG is ranked the number one team over there and to be able to beat them is a really good feeling and it gives us an idea on where we are at.”
Jesse Heslop opened the scoring capitalizing on a cross-ice pass from Teague Patton that went through the five-hole of PG netminder Ty Young.
Zac Funk put the Cougars back on even terms on the power-play as his attempted pass went off the skate of an Everett defender trickling past goaltender Ethan Chadwick.
Make that 16 powerplay goals for Funk – 7 more than the next most in the WHL 🤯 https://t.co/D3ZU8ivuIR pic.twitter.com/EoE8CPTLpp
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) November 29, 2023
However, in the dying minute of the first, Roest snatched the lead back for the visitors as his one-timer slipped through Young and into the goal putting Everett in front 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Emotions boiled over for the Cougars early in the second. Hunter Laing was checked from behind by Silvertips forward Andrew Petruk that went undetected by the officiating duo of Adam Forbes and Kevin Webinger.
This led to a fight between Petruk and Arjun Bawa (PG). On the following face-off, Roest found a seam along the far wing and blew a wrist shot past the blocker side of Young.
“Discipline is really becoming a problem here and our guys know what it takes to win. We are not really taking steps forward but now we have to take a look in the mirror and right some wrongs here.” said Funk postgame to MyPGNow.com.
Young was then pulled for the third time this season after giving up three goals on 14 shots.
To add insult to injury for the 19-year-old signed prospect of the Vancouver Canucks, Joshua Ravensbergen received a loud ovation from the Cougar faithful – a telling sign from the fans on who they think should be the team’s starting goaltender.
The goalie change seemed to spark the Cougars as Funk buried his second power-play goal of the contest connecting on an Ondrej Becher pass, trimming the deficit to 3-2.
Make that 16 powerplay goals for Funk – 7 more than the next most in the WHL 🤯 https://t.co/D3ZU8ivuIR pic.twitter.com/EoE8CPTLpp
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) November 29, 2023
Julius Miettinen added the game winner as he burst through centre ice with speed, taking the puck in stride and roofing a hard shot over the glove of Ravensbergen.
PG refused to go down quietly though as a strip and steal at the Cougar blueline led to a break away for Bauer Dumanski who beat Chadwick to make it a one-goal game again.
If you see Bauer in our next shootout… don’t be shocked. https://t.co/XeeEORBq0C pic.twitter.com/2guO4Tk12P
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) November 29, 2023
Terik Parascak, Viliam Kmec and Becher all had glorious chances to even the score for the Cats but either missed the net or were turned aside by Chadwick.
“He was awesome. He was really big when we needed him and that is big goaltending wise. Anytime you can get that is a really good thing and Chaddy was awesome tonight,” added Roest.
Chadwick’s best save of the game came in the dying minutes as he stopped Funk point blank who went between his legs but was denied by the 19-year-old from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
PG outshot Everett 39-31 overall while going 2-for-4 on the power-play. The Silvertips were 2-for-6.
“We went to the penalty box way too many times and we were taxing guys out there. It was a real good effort by our team. We had a lot of things going but had too many penalties,” said Mark Lamb, Cougars head coach and general manager.
The screams for Ravensbergen to claim the net full-time will continue to get louder by the fans as he sports a sparkling 1.87 goals against average to go with a .934 save percentage – this includes four shut outs in nine starts.
Young on the hand continues to struggle. His goals against average ranks 18th among WHL goalies (3.19) to go along with a .882. save percentage.
The Cougars (18-7-0-0) were without 19-year-old sniper Koehn Ziemmer who will be out indefinitely with an ankle injury.
He will be flying to Los Angeles tomorrow (Wednesday) to be assessed by the team doctors of the LA Kings and will rehab his injury in southern California.
With Ziemmer gone for the foreseeable future, Lamb admits some of the depth guys will need to step up offensively.
“We are going to need some goals from some other people in the lineup. The guys who are lower and don’t get those opportunities will be able to take some ice time from Ziemmer and we are looking forward to that challenge for those guys.”
PG is one point up on the Silvertips (17-10-1-0) for the top spot in the Western Conference.
Everett is 2-1 on a five-game road trip, which continues Friday in Edmonton against the Oil Kings (7-16-0-1) and will wrap up Saturday against the Red Deer Rebels (11-9-0-3).
The Cougars head south of the board for a three-game road swing through the US Division, which also kicks off Friday against the Tri-City Americans (13-8-1-1) in Kennewick, Washington.
PG will also stop in Spokane (Saturday) and Portland (Sunday).
All games can be heard on 94.3 The Goat with Cole Waldie.