Prince George Cougars forward Koehn Ziemmer scored a career-high four goals in his team’s dominating 9-1 victory over the Victoria Royals on Saturday.
The 17-year-old has recorded seven goals over his last four games, bringing his season total up to 27.
Several other Cougars also put in quality performances, with forwards Craig Armstrong amassing four points on a goal and three assists, while defenceman Hudson Thornton added a goal and two assists of his own in the win.
Multi-point games were also had by centreman Riley Heidt (three assists), defenceman Bauer Dumanski (two assists) and forward Caden Brown (two assists).
Prince George goaltender Ty Young would save 20 of 21 shots against, as his team put an end to a seven game losing streak.
Forward Riley Gannon scored the lone point of the night for Victoria, counting his 18th goal of the season.
Meanwhile, Royals starting goalie Tyler Palmer would stop 38 of 45 shots before leaving the game due to injury midway through the third. Campbell Arnold would come in to replace his partner, making 10 of 12 stops in the final 10 minutes of play.
It was a promising start for the Royals on Saturday as they opened the scoring on Gannon’s goal (18) at the 9:00 mark of the first period.
However, that lead would evaporate in less than a minute as Ziemmer (24) tied the game at 1-1 at 9:25 with his first of the night,
That was only the beginning for the Mayerthorpe, AB product, who would count two more goals before the end of the period, scoring at 11:04 (25) and 13:33 (26) to complete the natural hat trick in a span of four minutes and eight seconds.
His team would carry the 3-1 advantage going into period two.
The Cougars would then extend their lead to 4-1 on a goal by forward Johnny Hooker at 13:00 of the second.
The Koehn Ziemmer show would resume following the brief interruption by his teammate, as the forward would net his fourth goal of the game and 27th of the season to give Prince George a commanding 5-1 lead heading into the third.
While the second period marker would be the last of the night for Ziemmer, his team would add four more goals in the third to send the Royals home with a demoralizing 9-1 loss.
The first would be counted by forward Craig Armstrong (11) at 1:24, the second by defenceman Ethan Samson (13) at 5:28, and the third by forward Ryker Singer (6) at 14:47. Defenceman Hudson Thornton would add the ninth goal for his team, netting his 13th of the season at the 19:07 mark to cap off the victory.
The win improves Prince George’s record to 20-32-2-1 as they move three points clear (43 total) of the Royals for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s playoff chances take a hit following the loss, their record now standing at 17-34-5-1 with 40 points on the year.
Victoria and Prince George will face off for another weekend set beginning next Friday, Mar. 18 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria.
