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Broncos' blueline among best in WHL

Still smarting from a two-game spanking administered by the Kelowna Rockets on the weekend, the Prince George Cougars are back on the job tonight at CN Centre.
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Still smarting from a two-game spanking administered by the Kelowna Rockets on the weekend, the Prince George Cougars are back on the job tonight at CN Centre.

The Swift Current Broncos are in town to take on the Cougars at home for the first time in two seasons and could be a rough ride for the Cats. The Broncos are a veteran-stacked team loaded with leftovers from last year's squad that finished second in the East Division with 38 wins and 85 points.

They've got proven scoring with 20-year-olds Coda Gordon and Colby Cave, who both reached the 70-point plateau in 2013-14, and Jay Merkley is on track to beat his 34-goal season last year, currently leading the WHL with six goals and eight points in four games.

Sophomore forward Jake DeBrusk, the son of former NHL tough guy Louie DeBrusk, and Glenn Gawdin are attracting attention from NHL scouts for next year's draft.

Swift Curent's greatest strength is its blueline staff, considered one of the WHL's best. The good news for the Cougars is Julius Honka, a 19-year-old Finn picked 14th overall last June by the Dallas Stars, is still with the Stars. But the Broncos will be bringing Dillon Heatherington, a second-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013, as well as NHL picks Brett Lernout (Montreal, third round, 2014), and Brycen Martin (Buffalo, third round, 2014) to help form a wall in front of goalie Landon Bow, a six-foot-four, 213-pound native of St. Albert, Alta., who has earned the job as the starter.

It's tough to draw fans on a Tuesday night but the Broncos' only Prince George visit this season should be worth the price of admission.

"They're a very good team with very good defencemen," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "They got Heatherington back from Columbus and Honka, if he's back -- those guys drive the bus. Everything starts from your back end."

The Cougar players got a huge boost from the near-sellout crowd of 5,659 on opening night Friday but suffered a 7-2 defeat at the hands of the Rockets and the outcome in the rematch at CN Centre in front of a crowd of 2,581 on Saturday was even worse, an 8-2 loss.

Five power-play goals and two shorthanded goals, combined with a shaky goaltending effort from starter Tavin Grant, who gave up five goals on 12 shots, doomed the Cougars to their third loss Saturday.

"I thought our hockey IQ this [past] weekend was probably two out of 10," said Holick. "We didn't think the game at all. Yeah we competed, but when you make countless mistakes over and over, I don't know how much Kelowna earned, but we gave a lot of things up quite easily [Saturday night].

"It's great that the building had some atmosphere [Friday] night and it's disappointing that we did what we did here. I've been coaching a long time and I've never had a situation like this come up. But we have a 72-game total and we're not going to surrender just because we lost a couple games at home. You lose 1-0 or 8-2 you still lose and you get no points. We'll try to fix it and we'll start from the goaltender on out."

Chase Witala scored in Friday's game and was one of the better Cougar forwards in both weekend games, but his team's desire to give the fans what they wanted was wasted. Witala grew up in Prince George and remembers being in the crowd for playoff sellouts years ago but had never experienced it as a player.

"It was unreal, it was pretty special [Friday] night and even [Saturday] there was a good crowd and too bad we couldn't give them something good," said Witala. "It's nice to have them back and hopefully we can get some wins here and keep them happy."

LOOSE PUCKS: Brad Morrison returned to the Cougars after missing the opening weekend on the road with a shoulder injury and the 17-year-old from Prince George scored the Cats' first goal Saturday. Morrison centred a line with Jari Erricson and rookie Colby McAuley...The Broncos (2-2-0-0) are coming off a 5-2 loss at home Saturday to the East Division-leading Brandon Wheat Kings... The Cougars hit the road this weekend for games Saturday in Spokane and Sunday in Vancouver.