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Message received: Prince George Cougars redeem competitive standard in win over Royals

All lines stepped to a much-needed 5-2 victory in return to Kelowna hub

Talk about a complete 360!

After suffering a (sleepy) shut-out setback to Kamloops, the Prince George Cougars found another gear Friday night (April 16) that stuck with them to get back in the win column for a third time in four games.

The Cats propelled themselves to a 5-2 score over the Victoria Royals in Kelowna, stepping up on both sides of the puck.

"It's our team standard and they totally understood," said General Manager and Head Coach Mark Lamb referring to the after-thoughts of the loss to the Blazers and transitioning to a new set of 60 minutes.

"You don't have to really go in and tell your team when you have an effort like that. You acknowledge it and then you fix it. It's the team that does the fixing, then you leave it at that and move on."

Goaltender Taylor Gauthier earned his second win of the 2020-21 B.C. Division hub season by making 19 saves on 21 shots, while his teammates sent 41 pucks towards the Royals' cage.

Victoria opened the scoring midway through the first period and maintained the 1-0 advantage until the intermission.

Defenceman and alternate captain Majid Kaddoura brought the board back to all-square 1-1 more than two minutes into the middle stanza for Prince George's first of the night.

Assists were awarded to Davin Griffin and Blake Eastman for their first and third point of the hub season respectively.

The Cougars continued their hunt and reached their first lead of the contest and it was another defenceman that made it possible.

Keaton Dowhaniuk notched his first career WHL goal on a one-time slapper from the top of the right face-off circle that beat Victoria netminder Connor Martin low blocker side at 3:23 of the same frame.

The puck came back towards the 17-year-old after captain Jack Sander tried a sharp-angle shot on the same side of Martin, but was denied by the paddle before getting credited with the assist.

"It's a really young core back there that's really finding its way," said Lamb to PrinceGeorgeMatters when asked about his blue-line core through the first nine games of the year.

"They've got a lot of different elements and, you know, you've got a kid like Dowhaniuk, he can play the game however you want him to play. You want him to play physical, he can be physical. You want him to move the puck, he can do that and he can shoot the puck. We're just seeing glimpses of what he can be. So we've got our young guys and then we got our veterans and they're really doing their job also."

The Royals got one back more than eight minutes later for the 2-2 tie, but Jonny Hooker kept Prince George in front with his fourth lamp of the shortened campaign with 1:52 remaining in the second.

After Ethan Browne poked the puck into the offensive zone on the right side, and Hooker took over to get to a 3-2 lead.

"I saw Browne with the puck and he was sort of protecting the puck away from the defenceman, who was tying him up, and I sort of came behind him with speed and I just called for it. He made a good play, he pushed it to the other side of me and then I saw Ziemmer going to the net, so I knew he was taking that defenceman with him to the net," he explained.

"So I just cut to the inside and Ziemmer did a great job of screening the goalie [...] and it just found its way in. I think it was just a good line goal, really is what it was Everyone had a part in it."

Kyren Gronick and Tyson Upper scored 10 seconds apart within the final 30 seconds of regulation, including an empty-netter, to secure the 5-2 final and improve the Cats' record above 500 to 4-3-1-1.

This was Prince George's third three-goal win of the season, following their 6-3 and 4-1 back-to-back triumphs over Vancouver earlier this week.

The Cougars will complete the weekend doubleheader tonight (April 17) as the designated hosts against Kelowna.

This will be the first contest for the Rockets since receiving approval to resume team activities after enduring a 14-day suspension following seven positive COVID-19 tests.

Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops.

When asked by PrinceGeorgeMatters about the first visit to Kelowna's hub in nearly three weeks, Hooker claims his team has put its trust in the WHL and no one had concerns about returning to Prospera Place.

"They know what they're doing, they're talking to the experts and I have confidence that they know what they're doing. I don't think anyone on the team is that worried."

The next drive to Kelowna for the Cougars is currently scheduled for Friday, April 23, when they visit the Rockets.