Tyler Brennan and the Prince George Cougars will try to reverse a disturbing trend tonight in Victoria.
The Cougars (20-34-2-1) are back in the B.C. capital tonight and Saturday to try to cool off the Victoria Royals (21-24-5-1), who have won four straight games to climb into seventh place in the WHL’s B.C. Division, five points ahead of the eighth-place Cougars.
The Cougars still hold four games in hand over the Royals and have played two fewer games than the ninth-place Spokane Chiefs, who are tied with the Cougars, each with 43 points.
The Cougars will need Brennan to be sharp to get the better of the Royals, who have won three of their last four games against Prince George, including 3-0 and 6-2 triumphs last weekend in Victoria.
Brennan was one of four goalies invited to the Kubota CHL/NHLTop Prospects Game Wednesday in Kitchener, Ont., and the 18-year-old from Winnipeg allowed just one goal in 29:47 of game action for Team White in what ended up a 3-1 win over Team Red.
Considered by NHL Central Scouting as the top-rated North American goalie available for the 2022 NHL draft, Brennan also topped the list in goaltender testing in the Top Prospects skill sessions on Tuesday.
The Royals swept the visiting Kelowna Rockets in a two-game set in Victoria earlier this week. Victoria is now just two points back of the sixth-place Vancouver Giants, who have four games in hand over the Royals.
Contributions from captain Tarun Fizer, leading scorer Bailey Peach, San Jose Sharks-prospect defenceman Gannon Laroque and goaltender Tyler Palmer have been key in the Royals’ late surge for a WHL playoff berth.
Just as important has been the performances of the secondary-role players. The flash-quick line of Brayden Schuurman, Tanner Scott and Danish-import Marcus Almquist provided the bulk of the offence in the 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday night.
The stellar goaltending of Campbell Arnold against Kelowna showed that Victoria is as comfortable with 1B Arnold in goal as they are with 1A Palmer. The return from injury of 20-year-old forward Evan Patrician has also been noticed, particularly in the face-off circle.
Another player who lost much of the season to injury and is now a factor is Austin Zemlak. The Canada U-17 selection is growing into a monster on the Victoria defence and has laced into several body-shivering hits on opposing forwards to show why the Royals chose him as the ninth overall selection in the first round of the 2020 WHL draft. Zemlak could be the next Laroque on the Royals’ blue line.
The Cougars, meanwhile, have more than a few foundation pieces of their own. Because of lowly placings in recent seasons, and trades, the Cougars had seven first-round picks in the WHL prospects draft over the past three years, several of them top-five. That has resulted in five Cougars players ranked for the 2022 NHL draft and Koehn Ziemmer and Riley Heidt projected to go high in the 2023 NHL draft. Prince George is struggling this season but is very young, and could be the team to beat over the next few seasons in the B.C. Division and Western Conference.
The Cougars have won eight of 11 games against the Royals and Ziemmer has been their most deadly forward, with 12 goals and six assists in those 11 games. Heidt (two goals, 10 assists) and Craig Armstrong (four goals, eight assists), have also been effective scorers against Victoria.
Cougars play-by-play announcer Fraser Rodgers will broadcast the game on 94.3 FM, The Goat (7:05 p.m. start).
