The Prince George Cougars remain on top of the Western Conference standings thanks to a last-minute goal in a 3-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks.
Heidt scored the game’s final two goals, one to tie and one to take the lead with 50 seconds to go in the third period, avoiding overtime and giving the Portland Winterhawks a crucial extra point in the standings.
HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES???? https://t.co/kq1AyauZZK pic.twitter.com/4YDdvWQ1xX
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 20, 2024
The goal brought nearly 3000 fans in the CN Centre to their feet, held in suspense after the Cougars had numerous other chances to score in the dying minutes of the game.
Heidt’s first goal came on the powerplay at 12:37 of the third to tie the game after Portland’s Gabe Klassen struck twice on the powerplay in the first half of the third.
Bauer Dumanski had the Cougars’ first goal over half an hour into the game, scoring from his stomach after being tripped on the rush.
Call him Supermanski after this one https://t.co/q6y71jEkO7 pic.twitter.com/1I6wAStuVK
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 20, 2024
Portland narrowly outshot the Cougars, 27-26. Joshua Ravensbergen made 25 saves for the Cougars and was named the game’s second star.
Both Heidt and Klassen had two goals, Ondrej Becher and Hudson Thornton both had two assists each.
The biggest area of improvement the Cougars will be looking at game-over-game is the powerplay, they scored once on seven attempts.
Portland went 2/5 on the powerplay.
The Cougars record improves to 30-12-0-1, first in the Western Conference with 61 points and 3 points behind Saskatoon for first in the WHL.
Stupid time zones 😒 We are the *second* to 30 wins!pic.twitter.com/SKqOJi53WN https://t.co/eG5z18Mmra
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) January 20, 2024
Portland falls to 27-11-2-1 on the season, 57 points with two games in hand on the Cougars.
The Everett Silvertips moved their way into second place (59 points) in the west with a narrow 11-1 win over the Spokane Chiefs, they are 28-14-1-2 with 59 points – they have played two more games than Prince George.
Prince George and Portland play their final head-to-head game of the regular season tonight, it is Indigenous Night in the CN Centre and a near sellout crowd is expected.
You can read more about the feature night here.
You can also find the game’s boxscore here.