After a pair of weekend exhibition losses in St. Albert, Alta., the Prince George Cougars returned a trio of players to their midget AAA teams before starting the journey home.
The Cougars battle for the backup job to Drew Owsley in the net became a bit clearer when the Western Hockey League club released 16-year-old Brett Zarowny to the Leduc Oil Kings of the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League.
"It's a great situation and a great place to play," said Cougars coach Dean Clark, adding Leduc is hosting the Telus Cup in April 2012.
Also, heading back to midget AAA are a pair of defenceman: Mark McNulty to Medicine Hat of the AMHL and Jordan Harris - the Cougars first-round bantam draft pick in 2011 - headed to Prince Albert to join the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League's Mintos.
Clark said the 15-year-old Harris played well in the Cougars two games - a 2-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels on Sunday and a 6-5 overtime loss Monday to the Calgary Hitmen.
"We didn't have a great start to the game [Saturday], but we came back and had some great chances," said Clark.
With the exception of Taylor Makin, 18, the Cougars only brought 15- to-17-year-olds to the Edmonton Oil Kings annual invitational weekend.
"The guys played a very, very hard game against a team that dressed quite a few of their older players," said Clark about the loss to the Hitmen. "We got a point out of the game today and probably deserved a better fate [Sunday].
"It was a good, gritty effort. against a team with quite a few older (19, 20) on it," said Clark.
Each of the three goalies played 20 minutes in each game for the Cougars, with Tyler Santos and Devon Fordyce each allowing three goals in their 40 minutes of action, while Zarowny was 7-for-7 against the Rebels. Zarowny also stopped two penalty shots in his two games.
Defenceman Josh Smith suffered a cut on his foot against Red Deer and missed Monday's game.
Clark said a few of the players stood out during the two-games, including defenceman Michael Mylchreest and forwards Jordan Tkatch, Jarrett Fontaine and Jake Mykitiuk.
On Sept. 3, the Cougars traded forward Carter Rigby and a conditional 2014 sixth-round pick to the Kelowna Rockets for a third-round pick in the 2010 WHL bantam draft.
"He didn't want to report to our camp so we ended up trading his rights," said Clark. "He wanted to play somewhere, but didn't want to play for us."
Rigby cracked the Cougars lineup last season, but only played three games, before he left to join the Osoyoos Coyotes of the junior B Kootenay International Junior Hockey League where he played 26 games, collecting 22 goals and 43 points.
The 17-year-old later joined the BCHL's Penticton Vees for the final 10 games of the regular season and nine games of playoffs.
The Cougars practise today at the CN Centre at 10 a.m.
