Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Seasonal series tied at 2 wins apiece

Rockets rolling with clash vs. Cougars

Feb 7, 2023 | 6:00 AM

Featuring three top 10 scorers in the Western Hockey League, the Prince George Cougars have no lack of firepower heading into back-to-back games here at the CN Centre tonight and tomorrow.

Koehn Ziemmer, a 30-goal man from last season, has 65 points, including 29 goals.

The shot-first forward has 9 goals in his last 6 games.

Close behind is projected first-round NHL draft pick Riley Heidt, who also has 65 points, with a team-high 46 assists.

GM/Head Coach Mark Lamb’s best trade of the season came in the summer when he astutely acquired 20-year-old Chase Wheatcroft from the Winnipeg Ice, who leads the WHL in power-play goals with 19, and just this past weekend set a new Cougars franchise record for goals with the man advantage.

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Wheatcroft has 30 goals and is also in the top 10 in the league in scoring with 63 points.

Name another team in the Western Conference that has three 60-plus point producers.

You can’t.

Not Seattle, Winnipeg, or Kamloops.

You would never guess the Cougars have scored the 8^th most goals in the WHL, with Kamloops, Seattle, and Portland better in the Western Conference.

With an injury to leading scorer Andrew Cristall, who has missed 10 games with an injury, Kelowna Rockets Head Coach Kris Mallette has elected to play Gabriel Szturc in the middle between Carson Golder and Adam Kydd.

The move has paid off in a big way, with those three showing tremendous chemistry, and with Cristall out, it is that trio that is the straw that stirs the Rockets’ offensive drink.

While Mallette doesn’t have the last change in back-to-back games here in Cougar Country, will he choose to play fire with fire by getting out of the Szturc line against the Heidt unit?

Hold the phone.

Lamb typically plays Heidt with Ziemmer and Zac Funk, a player the Rockets have yet to see after the 19-year-old was acquired from the Calgary Hitmen at the trade deadline for a 2^nd, 4^th, and forward Carter MacAdams.

The Szturc/Golder/Kydd trio is a combined +21.

Ziemmer/Heidt/Wheatcroft is a combined -21.

It will be interesting to see if the Cougars dress 20-year-old Jaxon Wiebe, who didn’t play in two games on the weekend against the visiting Victoria Royals.

Wiebe, who plays dangerously close to the line with questionable hits, is a former teammate of Carson Golder’s, when the two played with the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Don’t sleep on Cougars d-man Hudson Thornton either.

With 12 goals and 48 points from the blue line, the 19-year-old is the highest-scoring d-man in the BC Division and second only behind projected first-round NHL draft pick Nick Dragicevic of the Tri-City Americans for the most points among defenders in the Western Conference.

It looks like d-man John Babcock is back in the lineup tonight, meaning the Rockets won’t have to play with a five-man unit.

The Cougars have suffered the fewest inter-divisional losses of any of the five teams in the BC Division (5), with two of those coming against the Rockets.

Meeting three straight times in the next four nights and separated by 9 points for 6^th place in the Western Conference, these are some of the most pivotal games of the season for the Rockets.

With five games in hand on 9th place Victoria, and with a four-point lead, these are the ones you need to capitalize on with the Royals idle until facing the Vancouver Giants in a home-and-home series this weekend.

The hockey should be terrific over the next two nights and the intensity should be high, and 104.7 – The Lizard – has all the action at 7:00 pm, or stream the game by clicking on the ‘Listen Live’ button at the top right corner of this page.