Riley Heidt celebrates his goal against Victoria on Dec. 27. (Image Credit: Victoria Royals)

By Victor Kaisar

Cougars 2 Royals 1

Ravensbergen stands tall as Cougars beat Royals in shootout

Dec 28, 2024 | 8:06 AM

VICTORIA — Koehn Ziemmer scored the shootout winner as the Prince George Cougars beat the Victoria Royals 2-1 Friday night (Dec. 27).

Riley Heidt scored PG’s lone goal in regulation, while Joshua Ravensbergen made 28 saves to extend the Cougars win streak to three games, and six of their last seven.

Heidt’s 100th career WHL goal came at 10:33 of the opening period after he took the puck off a Royals turnover and slid a shot through the legs of goaltender Jayden Kraus to make it 1-0.

The Royals tied things up 43 seconds into the second period on a delayed Cougar penalty through Seth Fryer.

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Neither team was able to score any further, in part due to the efforts of Ravensbergen – who was named first star – and Kraus – who picked up the third star honours for turning aside 33 of 34 shots in a losing effort.

Ziemmer scored the only goal of the shootout, while Ravensbergen stopped all three Royals shooters, to give the Cats the extra point at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena.

The win takes the Cougars to 19-9-3-2, good for 43 points from 33 games. The Royals drop to 17-10-3-3 and sit second in the B.C. Division with 40 points from 33 games.

The two teams will rematch in Victoria once again tonight as the Cats continue on the road following the WHL holiday break.

Their next home game at the CN Centre is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 3 against the Seattle Thunderbirds.