Bah humbug.
Tyson Verhelst and the Spokane Chiefs made it painfully obvious to the Prince George Cougars they aren't in the spirit of giving, at least not yet, with Christmas still a week away.
One night after goalie Garret Hughson dropped a lump of coal into the laps of the Cougars, Verhelst took over the Chiefs' netminding duties and was equally splendid, making 41 saves in a 5-0 victory to complete a two-game sweep Wednesday in front of 2,261 witnesses at CN Centre.
The Cougars were blindsided by a three-goal assault in the first period that put the Chiefs comfortably ahead. Mitch Lipon, who sat out Tuesday's game resting up an injury, buried a pass from the corner from linemate Hudson Elynuik past Ty Edmonds to open the scoring 12:17 in. Then, while killing a penalty, Markson Bechtold chipped the puck off the boards to break into the clear and he lifted the puck high over Edmonds' shoulder into the net. Spokane made it 3-0 with 1:01 left in the period with the teams playing 4-on-4. Dominic Zwerger finished off a fast break with a slapshot from a sharp angle. That came on the ensuing rush after Chase Witala, the Cats' leading goalscorer, put two shots off the goalpost seconds apart.
Cougars head coach Mark Holick obviously didn't like what he saw from his goaltender and replaced him with 16-year-old rookie Tavin Grant to start the second period. Grant also came on in relief for the third period in Tuesday's 5-4 loss to the Chiefs, allowing one goal on 10 shots.
That seemed to inspire the Cougars, who dominated the second period and outshot the Chiefs 20-10 but couldn't get any pucks past Verhelst.
It was the first skunking on home ice for the Cougars this season. Verhelst, a 17-year-old from Brandon, Man., had to make at least a half-dozen stellar saves and had about six pucks that rang goalposts behind him to help earn his first career WHL shutout.
"We made some silly mistakes in our zone and they ended up in our net," sad Holick. "I thought [Edmonds] had a tough night here, I didn't think the goals were great. The chances by our count were 13-2 in the second period but we couldn't get one."
Calder Brooks and Kaiiler Yamamoto, on a power play, scored on Grant in the third period.
Justin Almeida, the Cougars' top pick in the 2014 bantam draft (fifth overall), made his WHL debut Wednesday, centring a line with 20-year-olds Chance Braid and Jari Erricson. Although he's only five-foot-nine, 140 pounds, the 15-year-old Almeida did not look out of place in his first junior game and came close to scoring his team's first goal of the night on a backhander at the midway mark of the game. The native of Kitimat also drew some power-play duty late in the second period and just missed on a deflection. He was named the game's second star.
"He was arguably our best player tonight," said Holick.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars were without the services of F David Soltes (playing for Slovakia at the World Junior camp), as well as D Josh Anderson (wrist injury) and F Cal Babych (undetermined injury). Spokane was missing D Tamas Laday (Team Hungary, World Junior Group B tournament)and had four regulars out with injuries -- F Blair Oneschuk (upper body), F Devon McAndrews (upper-body), D Matt Sozanski (upper body), D Colton Bobyk (lower body)... Almeida will rejoin his Cariboo Cougars teammates for a pair of road games this weekend against the Greater Vancouver Canadians, followed by a trip to Calgary for the Mac's Midget Tournament which starts Dec. 26. He'll represent B.C. at the Canada Winter Games in February... Twenty-two of the Cougars' 36 home games this season are midweek games.
