The Western Conference Championship series is headed back to Prince George for Game Six following the Cougars convincing 6-1 victory over the Portland Winterhawks on Thursday.
The first period started similarly as Games Three and Four with Portland scoring before ten minutes had elapsed off the clock.
Marek Alscher took a slap shot from the point, but the Czechia native’s shot went wide of Josh Ravensbergen, who started Game Five after Ty Young started Game Four. Winterhawks captain Gabe Klassen was there to pounce on the rebound off the back wall. The overager from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, also scored the game’s first goal on Wednesday.
“I thought we came out with a pretty good start, obviously got the first one there. Then we kind of just didn’t keep the pressure on enough and settled in and let them get to us,” Klassen said.
With their season on the line, Prince George needed to respond and regain control of momentum before Portland could strike again.
“They got the first goal, they really got momentum. Our goalie made a couple really good saves there that kept us in it and then we got the ball rolling. We were playing the right way,” Cougars general manager and head coach Mark Lamb said during media availability.
Koehn Ziemmer, a Los Angeles Kings 3rd-round selection, got his team on the board following a turnover forced by defenseman Villiam Kmec as the Winterhawks tried to exit the zone. Jan Špunar tried to cut down the angle, but the 19-year-old’s wrist shot found room high to the blocker.
After missing 45 games due to a scary lower-body injury, Ziemmer returned to action for the last three games of the regular season. His first goal since Game One, came 2:40 after Klassen’s 5th of the playoffs.
“Personally it always feels pretty good to score, but I think tonight felt a little bit better, a little chip on my shoulder. I’ve been kind of snake-bitten the last couple games here, but I just brought my game tonight. I kind of knew I was going to score in the game before going into it,” Ziemmer said.
Lamb credited Ziemmer with working hard during his injury rehab to get to the point where he could score two goals in the Western Conference Championship.
“He (Ziemmer) is talking about the injury he had to come back from. It’s hard and people don’t understand how really hard that is. Especially for a goal scorer, you play a certain way. He actually had to learn to skate again basically. The first time he came back on the ice it was like he had two right legs,” he said.
Ziemmer smiled, laughed, and commented, “Felt like Bambi.”
Following several shifts in the offensive zone, the Cougars capitalized on another Winterhawks turnover. Ondrej Becher, who was coming off a two-assist game on Wednesday, hit Ziemmer with a pass. Špunar got a glove on the Mayerthorpe, Alberta, native’s shot, but the puck went up in the air and bounced into the net.
The Cougars had the majority of puck possession and shots as the first period came to a close. It was the first time at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum where the Cougars took a lead to the locker room. They also outshot Portland 15-10 during the first 20 minutes.
Prince George added to its lead in the second frame with the only goal.
Riley Heidt and Tyson Jugnauth took penalties 51 seconds apart, but neither team was able to generate much during the sequence.
However, on the Cougars’ second chance on the man advantage, it was the second unit that got the job done. A shot from distance went high over Špunar’s net, but Hunter Laing was in perfect position to clean up the rebound for his first of the playoffs in his 17-year-old season.
The power-play goal was the 6th of the series for Prince George.
“We have a lot of weapons, as they do. When you look at our teams, sometimes it is like looking in a mirror. The power play has been good all year, timely goals tonight, when Laing got that one, it was a very timely goal for us,” Lamb said of the power play.
Portland’s penalty kill ended the season as the WHL’s 6th best when shorthanded at 78.7%. However, the Winterhawks have allowed at least one power-play goal in each of the five games of the Western Conference Championship.
Despite the goals against, Klassen remained positive about how his team was playing down a skater,
“I think our penalty kill has been pretty good actually. A couple of bounces here and there have ended up in our net, but I think we are doing a pretty good job. We will make a couple of adjustments and go from there,” he said.
With a chance to win the series on home ice, Portland trailed 3-1 as the puck dropped for the 3rd period.
Looking for a way to generate more offense, Johnston mixed up his top three-line combinations.
“I think in games like that where you feel like you are playing well, but you aren’t breaking through, you try to juggle it a little bit to see if you can get a spark and try some different combinations,” he said. “I think it also catches the players attention a little bit. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You have to trust your gut when you do those things.”
However, it was the visitors who kept their foot on the gas pedal, instead.
A goal from Becher 3:22 into the frame was a key goal and really gave the Cougars some breathing room.
“I thought tonight’s game, scoring chance-wise, was close. They broke it open in the third with that fourth goal,” Johnston said.
As the Winterhawks were again without two key 19-year-olds Luca Cagnoni and Josh Davies, the increase in meaningful minutes for everyone else began to take its toll.
“I think the key part is our defense who have had an exceptional series. They’ve played really, really well, but with five defensemen playing heavy minutes in five games in seven days, that was a little bit challenging for our group of defensemen back there. They are really key to our game because they move the puck well, help our transition game, escape our zone cleaner, so give those guys credit because they battled hard and had heavy minutes the last little while, but tonight, I thought they looked just a little bit off,” Johnston said.
With under ten minutes to play, Borya Valis got behind the Winterhawks’ defense and was hooked giving the Colorado native a penalty shot.
The 19-year-old skated in towards Špunar and made a couple of dekes before shooting on his forehand to convert on the attempt. He celebrated his 8th of the playoffs and third of the series by flapping his arms like a bird in a move made popular by Evgeny Kuznetsov, who did it with the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes.
“If you know Valy, that’s his demeanor. He’s a pretty poised individual with a ton of skill,” Lamb said of the confidence Valis showed during a pressure situation.
Keaton Dowhaniuk finished the scoring with 6:30 left in the contest sending many of the 6,138 Winterhawks fans to the exits early.
“When it’s three games to one, everyone knows it’s three games to one. If you lose that one, you’re going home,” Lamb said. “This team has really grown together, we’ve had a great season, we’ve had a good playoff. You put all that together, and you put a pride factor into it, we really wanted to get back there and play in front of our fans and we played a strong game tonight. You just give the guys a lot of credit, when you get in these situations which way are you going to go? Are you going to really dig in? I knew which way this team was going to go.”
Both teams now have a much-needed three days off before the puck drops on Monday for Game Six at the CN Centre in Prince George.
“I think our crowd is pretty helpful for us. I think we play better in front of them. Obviously, it brings a lot of energy into the building with the whole city behind us there, and like you said we just have to take it game by game,” Ziemmer said.
Johnston feels his team has demonstrated all year their mental toughness and bouncing back from a loss.
“What excites me the most is that our team has shown a lot of poise and a lot of confidence this year. If they don’t like their game one night, they’ve come back the next night with a great game. Even in the playoffs when we had an off-night against Victoria, even though we won the game, we came back with an even better game. Same with Everett, and up in PG we showed the exact same thing. One of our best games of the series was Game Two up there. We have no issue playing in a visiting rink in front of their crowd, we have no issue that way. I like our veteran group, they are really mature, and they will be ready to go,” he said.
Klassen ended his media availability saying, “Stick to what is in our room, nothing else matters at this point. We just need to stick to our game showing up to the rink and doing our job.”
