Penalty call sparks Americans
The Tri-City Americans left town 6-5 shootout winners Saturday over the Prince George Cougars and the Cougars could not help but feel cheated out of a twopoint celebration. A horrendously bad penalty call and Parker AuCoin’s finishing touches prevented a possible P.G. victory.
The Americans were trailing 5-3 in the third period when they wriggled off the hook with back-to-back power-play goals to tie it after Cougars defenceman Rhett Rhinehart, one of the principles in the Kody McDonald trade, was handed a double-minor penalty for what looked like a clean hit into the corner boards on TriCity sniper Morgan Geekie.
The hit wasn’t from behind, it wasn’t a charge and it wasn’t a head shot. But the officials concurred as Geekie lay injured on the ice and Rhinehart was banished for four minutes.
Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk went ballistic on the bench and punched his hand against the Plexiglas in anger and about 2,800 fans agreed with his assessment, especially after they watched the replays. But the call was made and the Americans made the Cougars pay.
AuCoin connected on a cross-ice feed to make it 5-4 at 10:41 and scored again at the 12:16 mark with a shot from the goal line in the corner that deflected in off Tavin Grant’s goalstick. AuCoin scored the only goal of the shootout, beating Grant low to the stick side.
“I don’t think it was a penalty but it’s a judgment call on the referee and it is what it is,” said Matvichuk. “Both sides, I don’t think, are very happy with the way it was officiated tonight, there were missed calls on both sides and that was one from our organization that we’d like to have back.”
“To get three out of four from that team with the young group we’ve got, we’re very pleased. We’re very excited.”
The Cougars outshot the Americans 5-1 in five minutes of 3-on-3 overtime. One of the saves Americans goalie Beck Warm made came off a penalty shot awarded to Josh Curtis after Tri-City defenceman Anthony Bishop took him down on a breakaway as Bishop swatted the puck away. The Americans came close when Nolan Yaremko hit the post and the puck bounced high in front of the crease to Cougars defenceman Dennis Cholowski, who tried to bat it away with Jordan Topping on his doorstep. But before Topping could get to the loose puck, Grant slid across to smother it. Yaremko came close again in the dying seconds of OT when Grant failed to track the puck as the Cougars were clearing the zone and Yaremko’s high floating shot caught Grant square in the mask. —
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“I didn’t agree with the (penalty) call at all, sometimes you get good referees and sometimes you don’t,” said Grant, who made 34 saves as the Cougars outshot Tri-City 43-39. “At the end of the day we got a point out of it so we can’t be too mad at ourselves.”
The trades the Cougars have made in the past week left them with one of the youngest teams in the WHL. Half the roster now is 17 or younger. But they gave an Americans team that’s making a run for a title this season all it could handle.
“I think our team played really well with everything that’s going on and it’s pretty incredible how well we’ve done,” said Cougars centre Jared Bethune. “It was a tough couple bounces at the end there but we made some big strides this week and got three out of four.”
Just as they did Friday in their 4-3 win over the Americans, the Cougars scored the first two goals of the game to take a 2-0 lead in the first period. Bethune picked up where he left off after Friday’s hat-trick effort. He took off up the middle and toedragged the puck over the blueline just as Americans defenceman Roman Kalinichenko tripped over his own feet and fell. Bethune skated in and snapped a low shot in under Warm’s blocker.
A minute and change later, Curtis followed defenceman Joe Gatenby behind the Americans’ net, stripped the puck from him, and Jackson Leppard took possession in the high slot and passed to Aaron Boyd, whose shot from a wide angle went in off the leg of the Warm.
One of the loudest cheers of the night came late in the period when Josh Maser took exception to Kalinichenko nailing Bethune into the side boards and they both dropped the gloves. Maser landed two straight right-hand punches to the chops and the Russian defenceman left a trail of blood as he went to the dressing room for repairs.
Maser drew the extra two-minute penalty and the Cougars were 17 seconds away from killing it when Sasha Mutala got his stick on Mitchell Brown’s point shot and it slid in past a partially-screened Grant.
The Cougars’ power play struck twice in the second period for a 4-1 lead. Cholowski took the puck deep on the left side and his pass attempt went off a stick right to Leppard, who knocked it in for his ninth goal. Leppard was cross-checked right after he shot and on the ensuing penalty to Brett Clayton, Cholowski ripped in a wrister in for his 13th of the season.
“We’re happy to get a point but the penalties kind of screwed us over – we had a bit of a lead and that kind of killed it,” said Cholowski. “We can’t get too down on ourselves.”
Topping, with his 20th of the season, and Maxwell James, with a deflection off the back of Grant, made it a one-goal game again late in the second period.
“There were lots of ebbs and flows and exchanges of momentum and we feel pretty fortunate to come out with two points,” said Americans head coach Mike Williamson.
“We were behind all game and fortunately got a couple power-play goals to go in, in the third, and anybody can win it after that. Overtime was exciting, both teams had chances to finish it. (The Cougars) worked hard both games and probably deserved a better fate tonight.” —
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The win left the Americans (21-12-5-0) two points behind Portland for first place in the U.S. Division. The Cougars (15-18-4-3) are now eight points back of Spokane for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Americans pulled off a blockbuster trade to acquire defenceman Jake Bean from the Calgary Hitmen that was announced on the WHL website during the game. To acquire the 19-year-old Bean, one of eight WHL players who helped Canada win the world junior championship Friday, the Americans sent D Dakota Krebs, C Carson Focht, a second-round bantam draft pick in 2018, a first-rounder in 2019 and a second-rounder in 2020 to the Hitmen…. In his first game for the Prince Albert Raiders, McDonald, the former Cougar, was the first star in a 2-1 win over Red Deer Saturday in Prince Albert. McDonald scored the game-winner 1:08 into overtime. He played centre and won 10 of 14 draws and had four shots on goal… Cholowski now leads the Cougars in scoring with 39 points in 27 games but Saturday’s game could his last for the Cats. The 19-year-old is the team’s most coveted asset and with the trade deadline looming Wednesday at 2 p.m. PT, it would be surprising, considering the Cougars have already been making trades to get younger, if Cholowski is not moved to another WHL team…. Kjell Kjemhus, the other player acquired in the McDonald deal from Prince Albert, made his Cougar debut playing left wing on a line with Kryski and Liam Ryan… The Vancouver Giants play the Cougars tonight and Wednesday at CN Centre.