If you weren’t there Saturday to watch the Prince George Cougars manhandle the Vancouver Giants, that’s too bad. You missed a good one..
. if you’re a Cougars’ fan. They pasted the Giants 7-1 in front of an electrifying sellout crowd of 6,038.
On Community Heroes Night at the old barn, the Cougars had a handful of heroes in their midst on the ice at CN Centre and they answered the bell by committee to defeat a division rival that’s been creeping upon them. As lopsided as the score might seem on a night when Koehn Ziemmer rang up his second hat trick of the season and Borya Valis delivered a two-goal, two-assist effort, this one easily could have taken turn for the worse if not for the play of goalie Joshua Ravensbergen. Looking every step of the way like the guy NHL scouts are ranking high for the draft in June, Ravensbergen was there to bail the Cougars out, especially in the second period when he truly shined when his teammates mysteriously left it up to him to hold off the Giants.
Leading by three after one period, the Cougars skaters went into hibernation in the middle frame. They were outshot 13-3 and gave up three breakaways, two to Cameron Schmidt, the WHL’s leading goalscorer, and one to Jaden Lipinski, now seven games into his return to the Giants from the AHL Calgary Wranglers. Midway through the second, Ravensbergen stuck his glove out to deny Schmidt, in his Prince George homecoming, on a backhand deke that was probably the best save of the game for the.
