The Tri-City Americans were trampled on WHL Opening Night by a score of 9-0 in Prince George. This was the first of two games this weekend against Prince George with the second going Saturday night at 6 p.m. This was also the second straight year the Americans traveled up to Prince George to start their season, and a bit of deja vu for the veterans.
The game began relatively harmlessly, but by the second half of the first period, the lights switched on for Prince George, and they didn’t turn them off. The scoring began at 9:40 in the first period as Zac Funk took a quick shot off the faceoff as the powerplay expired and went five-hole on Nick Avakyan. The name Zac Funk was everywhere at the CN Centre tonight as he had a five-point night. Under a minute later, Viliam Kmec took a harmless shot from the right faceoff circle that snuck over the blocker of Nick Avakyan.
Five minutes later, Ondrec Becher buries home an empty net backdoor goal from Zac Funk after Avakyan had slid way out of his crease, committing to Zac Funk. Viliam Kmec, two minutes later, at 18:20, scored his second goal of the night after sneaking a shot from the point through traffic. To top it off, Zac Funk got his second goal 20 seconds later off a rebound, which made it 5-0 Prince George after the first period.
Eric Kahl replaced Nick Avakyan at the start of the second period. Avakyan let in five goals on nine shots. However, that did not stop Prince George as they were shot out of a cannon to start the second period. Ondrej Becher made a nifty cross-crease pass to Terik Parascak to make it 6-0 Prince George just 1:30 into the second period. Two minutes later at 3:54, Terik Parascak got his second goal of the night on a short-handed breakaway after a nice steal.
Tri-Cities battled for the rest of the period, creating many chances but unable to get that one goal. That would be a common theme for the rest of the night.
Beginning the third period, much like the second, Prince George scored very early into the frame, just 2:40 into the third period. Zac Funk got the first hat trick of the night for Prince George off a cross-crease feed from Ondrej Becher, which would complete a five-point night for Funk. Following that, the Americans would get a few chances on the powerplay but end up with no goals as Joshua Ravensberger made some great saves. As the game began to wind down to a close, Prince George had one more trick up their sleeve. Carter Savage got a late boarding penalty, and at 18:40, Viliam Kmec smacks home a rebound at the front of the net off a Hudson Thornton one-time wallop from the point. Kmec would also complete the hat trick, making it the second Prince George Cougar Hat Trick of the night. This would make the score 9-0 for Prince George.
That would be the end of the scoring for Prince George on the night. Joshua Ravensbergen would complete the shutout and do so in his first career WHL start as well. Joshua did something no other goalie in the WHL did last year: shut out the Tri-City Americans in a complete game.
Though the Americans were blown out tonight, there are a few positives to take away from the game. Jaxen Adam, Maximillian Curran, Cash Koch, and Eric Kahl made their WHL debuts.
Northwest Sports Desk 