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Teen gets taste of WHL

If the rule that limits 15-year-old Justin Almeida to a maximum of five Western Hockey League games did not exist, chances are he'd be a regular in the lineup of the Prince George Cougars.
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ALMEIDA

If the rule that limits 15-year-old Justin Almeida to a maximum of five Western Hockey League games did not exist, chances are he'd be a regular in the lineup of the Prince George Cougars.

Almeida left no doubt Wednesday in his WHL debut against the Spokane Chiefs at CN Centre he has the hockey skills and skating ability to play major-junior hockey.

Whether his slender body could take the punishment of playing regularly at that level remains to be seen but the Cougars and the 2,261 in attendance had to be impressed with what they saw from Almeida, who centred a line with 20-year-old wingers Jari Erricson and Chance Braid.

"We talked about that at training camp, if there wasn't an age restriction I'm sure he would have started the year [in the WHL] for sure," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "I thought he fit right in, he has good instincts and I was very happy with his play.

"Obviously there's a size and strength issue but he'll get stronger naturally as he gets older. Skill-wise he has no issues at all, he's at our level in skill and I think he's going to have a good career as a junior. For him, the sky's the limit really."

Almeida drew a regular shift and also got some time on the power play. The Cougars ran into a hot Chiefs goalie, Tyson Verhelst, who spoiled the night for the home team, making 41 saves in a 5-0 shutout.

Braid and Erricson play an aggressive style on the wings and that opened up a lot of ice for Almeida, who took advantage of it. But there were times when Almeida's physical deficiencies were obvious. At just five-foot-nine, 140 pounds, he still has some filling out to do before he's ready for the rigours of a full WHL season.

"He had a few chances there where he got in the middle of the ice and was coming in and he got kind of nudged off the puck a little," said Holick. "When you're a little stronger you can fight right through that and still attack the net."

Cougars forward Brad Morrison went through similar size issues in his rookie season as a 16-year-old and is now becoming a force in his second year in the league partly because he's added some muscle mass.

Almeida played WHL preseason games in September against Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Edmonton, but that was much different than facing a team in midseason form and playing the Chiefs was a tough test. He just missed scoring on his first shift and came close with a backhander from close range in the second period that Verhelst blocked.

"I think if I would have gotten it two inches higher it would have gone over the goalie's pad and into the net," said Almeida.

"I was really happy with the way I played. I just wanted to stick to my game and my vision [of] what I do on the ice and I thought I did that. I was a little bit nervous playing the power play but I think the way I played, I think I earned my way onto the power play and that was pretty exciting."

Almeida's regular team is the Cariboo Cougars of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League. He practices once a week with the WHL Cougars and has gotten to know the players, which should help him make the jump to the WHL full-time next season.

"I know their systems and I know a lot of the guys and they helped me a lot and made me less nervous," said Almeida, a native of Kitimat. "I'm friends with a lot of those guys so it was cool to have my first 'Dub game with them. It was a good confidence-builder playing with those guys and doing well up there."

The Cougars picked Almeida in the first round, fifth overall, in the bantam draft in May and they have him signed to a WHL contract. The Cougars can bring him up for four more regular-season games and Holick said he'll try to play him when the Cougars are at home where the home team has the last line change, which will give the coach more control over who Almeida will be playing against.

Almeida is tied for 12th overall in Major Midget League scoring with 16 goals and 33 points in 24 games. He played last season for the North Vancouver Winterhawks, who won the B.C. Tier 1 bantam championship in a tournament played at Kin 1. He and Cariboo Cougars goalie Dorrin Luding have been picked for Team B.C. to play in the Canada Winter Games in February.

"He's a very intelligent hockey player who has a lot of gifts to make teams better and he makes players around him better," said Cariboo Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. "He's ahead of the game in lots of areas and I guess my problem is having players smart enough to play with him, because he's at a different level.

"I've watched him since he was a peewee and everything he did last night we already knew he could do. It's pretty exciting to have a talent like that up here in the north. As much as he's a part of our success right now, he's the future of the Prince George Cougars."

Almeida will return to the ice this weekend in Richmond with the Cariboo Cougars to play a two-game set against the Greater Vancouver Canadians. The Cougars have been invited to play in the Mac's Midget World Invitational tournament in Calgary, starting Dec. 26. They open against the Lethbridge Hurricanes that day, and also play round-robin games against the Calgary Northstars (Dec. 28), Battlefords Stars (Dec. 29) and Markham Warriors (Dec. 30).