And then there were three.
The Prince George Cougars are down to three goalies after they reassigned 19-year-old Patrick Gora Thursday to the Camrose Kodiaks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Gora joined the Cougars in January and played five games, posting a 5.26 goals-against average and .825 save percentage. Picked by Regina in the ninth round of the 2011 WHL bantam draft, Gora played 23 games last season for Camrose before he came to Prince George and he compiled a 19-4-1-0 record, 1.98 goals-against average, and .922 save percentage, with five shutouts.
"Patrick came to the rink every day with a positive attitude and competed hard," said Cougars general manager Todd Harkins, in a team release. "We are happy with his overall development this summer. He pushed our other goaltenders very hard and played well for us during training camp and the preseason. With this decision, we are putting him in a position where he is going to play a lot and contribute to the success of the Camrose Kodiaks, and we will continue to monitor his overall development."
Goalies Ty Edmonds, Tavin Grant and Mack Shields remain with the Cougars, along with 10 defencemen and 19 forwards.
The Cougars host the Kamloops Blazers at CN Centre in their only WHL preseason game Saturday (7 p.m. start). The WHL is allowing its fans a sneak peak at the new overtime format. At the end of regulation time, regardless of the score, the teams will play five minutes of 3-on-3 overtime and the sudden-death, first-goal-wins rule will not apply.
On Saturday, each team will be allowed to score at will during the five-minute extra session and if that ends in a tie there will be no shootout. During the season, the format switches to sudden-death 3-on-3 with a shootout to follow, if needed.
