It wasn’t what they were hoping for in their first acid test of the new WHL season but the young Prince George Cougars showed something in their 5-4 loss to the Kamloops Blazers Saturday night that Cougar fans haven’t seen in long time.
They can score goals in bunches, just like upper-echelon teams like the Blazers have gotten into the habit of doing throughout their reign as two-time defending B.C. Division champions.
The Cougars have suffered for their lack of scoring punch over the years. But this season, as they proved to the Blazers and a partisan CN Centre crowd of 2,425 by overcoming a 3-0 deficit halfway through the game to tie it up, this Cougar team has the talent to trade lamp-lighting jabs with the best of opponents.
But they failed to come up with an answer when Blazer veteran Connor Levis, while standing just off the post, batted in a behind-the-net feed from linemate Matthew Seminoff for what stood as the winning goal on a Kamloops power play with less than five minutes left.
It was a disappointing ending to an otherwise encouraging night at the rink for the Cougars.
“I think we battled pretty good and did the best we could out there,” said Cougars defenceman Ethan Samson, who just returned Tuesday from the Philadelphia Flyers’ camp. “It was a couple tough mistakes. It’s early in the season and we’ve got to tighten some things up as we move forward. But if we keep that work ethic and we keep going after it all the time we can win some games this year against good teams.
“We have a young team but we have a lot of skilled guys and the more they play, the more confident they’ll get. It’s a learning curve to make that jump and some of them, with the experience last year, they’re really starting to fill in and feel comfortable and they can bring that scoring power we lacked the last couple seasons.”
Josh Pillar led the Kamloops cause with a goal and assist. Reese Belton, Marko Stacha, and Tye Spencer also scored. Defenceman Hudson Thornton, in his first game as a Cougar at CN Centre, collected a goal and two assists, while 16-year-old Riley Heidt and newly-named captain Jonny Hooker each finished with a goal and an assist. Kyren Gronick also scored for the Cats and Slovakian defenceman Viliam Kmec added a pair of assists.
Leading on an early snipe from Belton seven minutes in, the Blazers added to the total with goals late in the first period and early in the second. Defenceman Stacha, acquired earlier in the week in a trade from Vancouver, picked the top corner in behind Tyler Brennan for his first as a Blazer at 18:04 of the first, and just 45 seconds into the second period Minnesota Wild draft pick Pillar got to the crease and slid a loose puck into the Cougar goal.
The Cougars finally connected near the midway mark of the second on a 3-on-2 chance. Craig Armstrong took the puck deep down the right side and fed Thornton for his second career WHL goal. Thornton, who is now wearing a letter this season as an assistant captain, joined the Cougars from the USHL last spring and was limited to just six of the 22 games due to COVID protocols but he looked like a polished veteran in his Prince George debut and was named the game’s first star Saturday.
Kyren Gronick took the spotlight when he broke into the Blazer zone with linemates Hooker and Heidt and was in the right place to accept Heidt’s backhand pass from the deep slot, picking up where he left off last spring in the Kamloops-Kelowna bubble when he put up five goals and six assists in 17 games to earn an invitation to Hockey Canada’s under-17 development camp in July.
Heidt played all 22 games as a 15-year-old and his nose for the net led to the goal that made it a 3-3 game late in the second period. He had his back to the net with his linemates creating traffic in front of goalie Dylan Garand and while standing in the circle he got his stick on a weak shot from the point that deflected in over Garand’s shoulder.
Spencer broke a 3-3 deadlock midway through the third period with a spinning shot from the slot but the Cougars followed up a few minutes later on a power play Hooker got to his own rebound and fired it in.
“We have lots of firepower on this team and lots of skill and I think the fans are going to get used to those type of games,” said Hooker. “We will clean up our mistakes and we’ll work on those details in practice and we have a full week before our next game.
“Throughout the past couple years the bar keeps getting higher and higher and I think we have a high standard in this dressing room right now and we’re here to win every game. It was awesome playing for the fans again. They’ve had to put up with a couple of subpar years in the past and I think we can reward these fans and show them a lot of wins this year. They were loud tonight and definitely made a difference.”
Mark Holick, who was head coach of the Cougars from 2013-16, is now the Blazers’ associate coach and he obviously enjoyed coming out on the winning side of the ledger against the Cats in their season-opener.
“It’s nice to beat a team you used to work for but I think we have some work to do yet with our group,” said Holick. “It’s an early-season game and it was a but sloppy at times, but we’ll take two points on the road anytime.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars’ forward line combinations were Armstrong-Bowie-Ziemmer, Hooker-Heidt-Gronick, MacAdams-O’Brien-Eastman and Reichle-Singer-Brown… The Blazers were missing two overage defenceman who are still away at pro camps. Swedish import Viktor Persson is still with the Vancouver Canucks, while Quinn Schmiemann is working out with the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms… The ongoing pandemic means crowds for WHL games are restricted by provincial health rules to half capacity and fans are required to show proof they’ve been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus but judging by the number of empty green seats there was no risk of going over the halfway mark in a building large enough to hold 5,971. The Cougars are on the road next weekend for games in Langley against the Vancouver Giants and Saturday for a rematch against the Blazers. They’ll be back at CN Centre Oct. 16-17 to host the Victoria Royals.
Friday WHL summary
Blazers 5 at Cougars 4
First Period
1. Kamloops, Belton 1, Michael, Bairos) 7:58
2. Kamloops, Stacha 1 (Pillar, McCarry) 18:04
Penalty – Stacha Kam (tripping) 0:04.
Second Period
3. Kamloops, Pillar 1 (McCarry, Stankoven) 0:45
4. Prince George, Thornton 1 (Armstrong) 9:43
5. Prince George, Gronick 1 (Heidt, Hooker) 12:40
6. Prince George, Heidt 1 (Kmec, Thornton) 18:35
Penalties – Kaddoura PG (tripping) 7:22, Kuefler Kam (hooking) 9:53, Ziemmer PG (boarding) 15:48.
Third Period
7. Kamloops, Spencer 1 (Lindgren, Finnie) 10:25
8. Prince George, Hooker 1 (Thornton, Kmec) 12:55 (pp)
9. Kamloops, Levis 1 (Seminoff, Sydor) 15:09 (pp)
Penalties – Stacha Kam (roughing), Armstrong PG (double-roughing) 9:25, Lindgren Kam (interference) 11:08, Reeves PG (hooking) 13:36.
Shots on goal by
Kamloops 9 12 10 -31
Prince George 12 11 6 -29
Goal – Kamloops, Garand (W, 1-0), Prince George. Brennan (L, 0-1).
Power plays – Kam: 1-4; PG: 1-3.
Referees – Brayden Arcand, Brian MacDonald; Linesmen – Tyler Garden, Anthony Maletta; Video goal judge – Dustin Hudyma.
Attendance – 2,425.
