The Prince George Cougars loaded up the cupboard, acquiring a trio of proven WHL stars in advance of the WHL trade deadline, and now are preparing to show they've got what it takes to run the table.
One of those trades paid immediate dividends to the Cougars Wednesday night in Medicine Hat when left winger Radovan Bondra figured prominently in a 4-3 win over the Tigers. The 19-year-old Slovakian scored the tying goal early in the third period and helped set up Jared Bethune's game-winning power-play goal a few minutes later.
The six-foot-five, 221-pound Bondra, a fifth-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015, was added to the roster Tuesday from the Vancouver Giants when the Cougars sent 18-year-old import forward Bartek Bison, forward prospect Tyler Ho and a third-round bantam pick in 2018 to the Giants.
Playing on a line with centre Jansen Harkins and right winger Colby McAuley, Bondra offered a glimpse of what the Cougars hope to be seeing a lot of the rest of the season - a big guy with soft hands with proven ability as a gamebreaker.
"I thought he was good, he skates better than what we thought originally, and he used his body to his advantage," said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. "These two kids (Bondra and newly-acquired winger Nikita Popugaev) are still very new to our system. We haven't had a practice with them yet so it's going to take time. But once we get them geared into our system and playing the way they should they're going to benefit us."
The battle of two division leaders lived up the hype in what was a fast well-played game in Medicine Hat. The Cougars avenged their 6-4 loss to Medicine Hat at CN Centre back on Nov. 2.
"It was another one of those games with two top teams playing with a playoff-like atmosphere and one thing we could learn from is we can't take that many penalties (the Tigers went 1-for-4 on the power play) against a team that has a high-powered offence like they do," said Matvichuk. "But I thought we did a good job."
The Cougars (29-12-2-0, first in B.C. Division) are in Lethbridge tonight (6 p.m., PT) to face the Hurricanes (23-15-3-2, second in Central). Prince George will finish their four-game roadtrip Saturday in Calgary. The Cougars have 29 games left in the regular season to figure out what roles their new players will fill.
Last week the Cats pulled the trigger on another big trade with Moose Jaw to acquire the 18-year-old Popugaev in exchange for 18-year-old forward Yan Khomenko, 17-year-old forward Justin Almeida, a fifth-round pick in 2017 and a second-round pick in 2018.
Popugaev set up Jesse Gabrielle for the Cougars' second goal Wednesday, the third point in four games for the six-foot-six, 202-pound Russian import. He played left wing Wednesday with centre Brogan O'Brien and Bethune on the right side, and now has 23 goals, leading the Cougars with 54 points, 11th in the WHL scoring race.
The Cougars have just two right-handed shooting forwards and it was thought Popugaev would play right wing but he's played the left side most of his career.
"Popugaev likes to play the off side so it gives us options," said Matvichuk. "It's kind of a Catch-22 because Jesse (Gabrielle) likes to play his off side too."
In November, the Cougars sent ripples throughout the league when they picked up 19-year-old defenceman Brendan Guhle from the Prince Albert Raiders, sending 18-year-old defenceman Max Martin, 18-year-old forward Kolby Johnson, a first-round pick in 2018 and a third-round pick in 2019 to the Raiders.
In one other deadline deal Tuesday, the Cats picked up forward Tanner Wishnowski, 19, from the Spokane Chiefs in exchange for an eighth-round pick in 2018. Wishnowski is still out with an upper-body injury and hasn't played since Nov. 19. He started the season with the Kelowna Rockets.
The Hurricanes were busy on the trade front as well, acquiring 20-year-old forwards Matt Alfaro and Zak Zaborosky from the Kootenay Ice and 19-year-old forward Alec Baer from the Vancouver Giants just before Tuesday's deadline.
The addition of Zaborosky (29-17-46, 25th in the WHL in points) gives the Hurricanes three players in the top 25 in league scoring along with Tyler Wong (29-29-58, sixth), Giorgio Estephan (21-28-49, 18th).
Twelve Cougars have been stricken with a flu bug and Matvichuk was unsure Thursday afternoon if any of them would be too sick to play tonight. Defenceman Tate Olson suffered an upper-body injury in a collision with teammate Brad Morrison in the Cats' 4-1 loss Tuesday in Red Deer and might not play the rest of the trip.
