Taylor Gauthier had absolutely no warning.
Before the rookie Prince George Cougars goalie could react, the stick of teammate, defenceman Cole Moberg, came down on his helmeted head as Moberg tried to fend off Kelowna Rockets sniper Dillon Dube.
It happened early in the third period of the Cougars' game Tuesday night and for the first time in his young WHL career Gauthier was injured and unable to continue. The injury is not considered serious but there's a chance Gauthier will not be available the next two nights when the Cougars visit Spokane and Tri-Cities.
"It's an upper-body injury and we'll take a couple days to reevaluate it," said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. "It's hard to tell on the tape but I think (Moberg) and Dube went to the net together and it was just a stick in a weird spot caught him in the head.
"Knowing who he is and what he is to our organization it's always better to be safe than sorry and we want to make sure he's 100 per cent healthy going into his next game."
Gauthier, the ninth overall pick in the 2016 WHL bantam draft, was the highest bantam pick any team has used on a goalie since Carey Price went seventh overall to the Tri-City Americans in 2002. The Cougars are touting Gauthier as their franchise goalie, for good reason.
His stats aren't all that impressive - 3.87 goals-against average, .885 save percentage and a 5-15-1-1 record in 24 games, but that's tempered by the fact he's playing on one of the youngest and weakest defensive teams in the league.
Considering Gauthier just turned 17 on Feb. 15, he could have four more junior seasons ahead of him and he's only going to get better with age.
That aging process sped up a bit on Gauthier in Tuesday's game when he was asked to come in cold to replace starter Tavin Grant, who allowed three goals on the first six shots he faced, with the Cougars trailing 3-0 just 5:35 into the game.
Kelowna shooters got three more on Gauthier before he got hurt and Grant came back into the game and shut the door on the host Rockets, blocking all eight shots he faced.
The youth-infused Cougars rallied from a 6-2 deficit with a strong third period and got unanswered goals from Ryan Schoettler, Rhett Rhinehart (his first career WHL goal) and Jared Bethune before losing 6-5 to the B.C. Division's first-place team.
"Give our guys credit, we battled back hard and overall I thought our effort and our compete level was outstanding," said Matvichuk. "The third period, our guys easily could have packed it in, especially knowing the group we have and how young we are.
"But they pushed things to a different level and they dominated the third period (outshooting Kelowna 15-8). It would have been crazy to think we could have stolen a point out of there but when you get down 6-2 you just put the pedal to the metal. When you score five goals that should be enough to win."
That third period Tuesday is something the Cougars (20-31-4-4, fifth in B.C. Division) hope to build upon when they take on the Chiefs (33-21-3-2, third in U.S. Division) tonight in Spokane.
"They're the elite of what we're seeing in the American conference and we're going to have to go in there and play our best defensive game to be able to win," said Matvichuk.
The Cougars coach said he won't name his starter in goal, either Grant or Isaiah DiLaura, until this morning. He said Grant knows he has to be better as a 19-year-old, but he wasn't pinning Tuesday's loss on his shoulders
"I think if you asked Tavin, he wants his start back, but you can't just blame one goalie," said Matvichuk. "Us as a coaching staff and an organization will never just single out one player, everybody's involved and there are four or five mistakes before they get to Tavin, so we've got to clean up our defensive play."
Gauthier is the only injured Cougar. The Cats still have midget-aged call-up forwards Tyson Phare and Connor Bowie auditioning. Phare, the Cougars first-round bantam pick (28th overall) in 2017, played his first WHL game Tuesday after getting called up from the Yale Academy prep team. The Maple Ridge native has 20 goals and 35 points in 25 games at Yale. Bowie, 16, was part of the Dennis Cholowski trade with Portland. He plays for his hometown Northeast Trackers midget team in Fort St. John and has 27 goals and 27 assists for 54 points in 27 games. Bowie made his WHL debut Saturday in the Cougars' 7-6 shootout victory over the Blazers.
"Connor was great in Kamloops and Tyson was really good in Kelowna - the future here is crazy-good," said Matvichuk. "One will play (tonight) and the other one will play Saturday. It's about managing their icetime and getting their feet wet so they know how hard you have to be and good you have to be to play at this level."
The Cougars will be back home to host the Rockets next Tuesday and Wednesday at CN Centre. After that they will have just nine games left, five at home and four on the road.
