The Cougars picked up the scent early and were unrelenting hosts in a 5-1 victory over the visiting Tri-City Americans Friday night in front of 2,497 paying customers at CN Centre.
The first goal of the Cougars’ season came from an unlikely source – 16-year-old rookie defenceman Ephram McNutt - just past the two-minute mark. McNutt, playing his first WHL game, joined the rush and took a backhand pass from Carter MacAdams to complete a 2-on-1 rush. Mulawka drew the second assists after making his second save of the game to spring MacAdams on his way.MacAdams got into the scoring act in the second period with goals 18 seconds apart.
The Americans didn’t get a ton of chances on Mulawka but he made the saves he had to and looked sharp from the opening puck drop. He was called into service with Tyler Brennan and Ty Young, the two incumbent goalies, still away at their NHL camps and picked up where he left off after stopping 62 of 63 shots in a pair of exhibition wins last weekend over Kamloops. Tri-City finally broke through the armour of the Edmonton native six minutes into the third period, cashing in a 2-on-1 chance.
Maintaining discipline was a problem for the Americans all game and the Cougars’ power play finally clicked with about seven minutes left. Koehn Ziemmer took a lose puck off a skate in front of the net and fired in a high wrister to cap the scoring on their ninth power-play opportunity.
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