PRINCE GEORGE 9 - VICTORIA 1
The Prince George Cougars are among the biggest puzzle pieces in the Western Hockey League.
Because of their lowly placings in recent seasons, and trades, the Cougars had seven first-round picks in the WHL prospects draft over the last three years, several of them top-five.
That has resulted in five Cougars players ranked for the 2022 NHL draft.
That assembled talent, which has been floundering mightily, finally came to the fore Saturday night in a 9-1 victory over the Victoria Royals at CN Centre.
The Cougars (20-32-3) halted an overall seven-game losing streak and a 10-consecutive games home-loss skid.
It was only Prince George’s third win in its last 19 games. But it was a crucial one, moving the Cougars three points ahead of the Royals with two games in hand in the battle for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference.
The Spokane Chiefs, winners over the Tri-City Americans, also moved three points up on ninth-place Victoria with one game in hand.
Victoria’s situation is precarious.
If the Royals (17-34-6) miss the playoffs, they will rue their lack of success against Prince George as the Cougars are 8-1 against the Royals on the season.
Riley Gannon scored the first goal of the game Saturday for Victoria before the Cougars launched their onslaught, led by Koehn Ziemmer’s natural hat-trick in the first period to make it 3-1.
It just got worse from there for the visitors as Ziemmer finished with four goals.
Tyler Palmer made 29 saves in goal for Victoria while Prince George’s Ty Young needed to make only 13 saves for the victory.
Complicating Victoria’s stretch drive is its horrendously untimely injury situation. Victoria’s porous defence has one standout, San Jose Sharks fourth-round draft pick Gannon Laroque, who is out week-to-week with an upper-body problem.
The Royals were also without leading scorer Bailey Peach, Swiss world junior player Keanu Derungs and 20-year-old forward Evan Patrician.
This is not a team with the sort of depth that can make up for those key losses.
“We’re happy to get the split here [Victoria won 5-3 on Friday night in Prince George], but with a depleted line-up, it just caught up with us tonight,” said Royals general manager and head coach Dan Price, noting it was the Royals’ sixth game in nine nights.
The Royals, down to 11 regular-season games remaining and pretty much in must-win mode, meet the Cougars again next Friday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“I know our response will be great when we get home,” said Price.
