With the ink barely dry on his entry-level contract, Riley Heidt delivered his best for last to close the curtain on a historic 2023-24 WHL regular season for the Prince George Cougars.
The signed top-prospect of the Minnesota Wild scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory over the Kamloops Blazers in front of a sold-out crowd at CN Centre, sewing up top spot in the Western Conference for the first time in the franchise’s 30-year history.
Best in the West!
The @PGCougars take top spot in the Western Conference with 102 points!#FeedingtheFuture pic.twitter.com/njTRo86r7j
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 24, 2024
At 13:51 of the second period, Heidt found a seam in the middle of the Blazers defense, deflecting home a pass from Ondrej Becher.
Heidt’s first marker of the game was equally as uplifting – the 19-year-old from Saskatoon was sprung on a breakaway by star rookie Terik Parascak. Heidt did the rest and beat Blazers netminder Jesse Sanche.
Two goals 2:20 apart? You betcha.
Hey @mnwild, this your guy?#mnwild pic.twitter.com/9occAV1Jgk
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 24, 2024
While skating towards the crowd, Heidt graciously took a bow to on Retro Night as the Cougars turned back the clock to the 1996-2008 era wearing a sleek-looking black jersey with the vintage logo in front.
Ashton Ferster opened the scoring for Kamloops on a 2-on-1 rush deflecting a Tommy Lafreniere pass that beat Cougars netminder Josh Ravensbergen.
In third, it would Ferster who would prove to again be a thorn in the Cougars side, tapping in his second of the contest to even the score at 2-2 just over a minute into the third.
Much like he has all season, Becher would once again score a clutch goal for the Cougars, accepting a Keaton Dowhaniuk pass, solving Sanche to put the hosts up for good.
Heidt brought the CN Centre house down six minutes later, once again slipping in behind the Kamloops defence, sliding the puck under the pad of Sanche to complete the hat-trick.
On the day he signs his three-year, entry-level contract with the @mnwild, Riley Heidt scores three.
A Heidt-trick, if you will.@PGCougars | #mnwild pic.twitter.com/SMnSyazhIq
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 24, 2024
Borya Valis added a single to ice the game, firing a hard-wrister into the mesh following a face-off win from Matteo Danis.
PG outshot the Blazers 39-29 while both teams went a combined 0-for-5 on the power-play.
Ravensbergen, who made 27 saves collected his 26th win inside the Cougars crease. The 17-year-old led the league in shutouts with six – while also tying the rookie record.
Sanche on the other hand, stopped 34 PG pucks in defeat for Kamloops who finished last in the Western Conference with a mark of 20-42-3-3, dropping eight straight games to wrap up a rebuilding year for the franchise.
Funk finishes the regular season second in the league scoring race with 123 points, three behind high-flying Moose Jaw Warriors forward Jagger Firkus who had 126 – this included 61 goals.
The Cougars finish their historic regular-season with a mark of 49-15-1-3. This included a 17-0-1-1 run in the team’s final 19 games. To that end, Becher also ended the season on a 19-game point streak (14 goals and 28 assists).
In addition, the final home game of the 2023-24 campaign also saw another Mega 50-50 jackpot, which reached over $177,000 with the winner taking home just under 89-grand. The winning ticket of FA-2920558 was claimed prior to the final buzzer.
The remaining proceeds will go towards the Spirit of the North Health Care Foundation.
With the 68-game audition now in the rear-view mirror, PG flips the page to their first-round playoff opponent the Spokane Chiefs, led by high-scoring 17-year-old sensation Berkly Catton.
Catton finished top-five in WHL scoring.
They split their season series, it’s only fitting the @PGCougars and @spokanechiefs battle it out in Round One of the 2024 #WHLPlayoffs presented by Nutrien. pic.twitter.com/5eUYKZM2SD
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 24, 2024
Games One and Two are set for Friday (7pm) and Saturday (6pm) at CN Centre.
The series will follow a 2-3-2 format, where games three to five will occur April 2nd (Tuesday), 3rd (Wednesday) and 5th (Friday) from the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.
If necessary, the best-of-seven would shift back to PG for games six and seven taking place April 8th (Monday) and 10th (Wednesday).
Both teams split the four-game series in the regular season. PG defeated the Chiefs in Spokane 6-3 on December and again in the northern capital in a dramatic come-from-behind 5-4 overtime victory March 2nd
The Chiefs wins over the Cougars came in March 1st (5-4 in overtime) and 4-3 on January 26th from the Spokane Memorial Arena.
If you can’t make it to the game in person, catch all the action on 94.3 The Goat with Cole Waldie and Hartley Miller.