The strangest of strange Western Hockey League season ended on Wednesday and the Prince George Cougars went their separate ways after two months of living in hotel rooms as isolated occupants of the B.C. Division hub.
Many months of planning went into making sure the league could operate safely in the midst of a pandemic and despite 14 positive COVID cases out of 9,735 tests the WHL conducted from Feb. 12-May 7, the season pretty much unfolded without a hitch. The 22 teams strictly followed health protocols, knowing their hockey lives depended on it.
Teams stayed sequestered within their divisions to limit travel and exposure to the virus and while some games had to be cancelled due to those positive player tests each team with the exception of the Tri-City Americans (19 games) and Kelowna Rockets (16 games) played at least 21 games.
The Cougars played their last of 22 games Wednesday in Kamloops, losing 4-1 to the Kamloops Blazers, who wrapped their second-straight B.C. Division title. Despite being the second-youngest team in the Western Hockey League the Cougars emerged with the league’s 13th-best winning percentage (.477).
Finishing with a 9-10-2-1 record, they almost made the .500 mark for the first time in four seasons. Had there been playoffs under the conventional conference format the Cats would have claimed the first wild-card spot. Not bad considering the amount of ice time their 10 rookies received.
Aside from WHL freshman defenceman Hudson Thornton, whose transfer from the USHL limited him to just six games, the Cougars had free reign to play their young guys as much as they wanted and that led to some major breakthroughs.
Rookie Koehn Ziemmer played all 22 games and scored a team-high nine goals, two of which were game winners, and he showed he won’t get pushed around chasing loose pucks in the corners. The Cougars picked Ziemmer fourth overall in 2019, right behind defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk, who also impressed his bosses with his ability to skate and pass the puck, and his offensive abilities translated into a three-goal, five-assist season.
Second-year defenceman Ethan Samson collected a goal and 11 assists to end up tied with Ziemmer for second on the scoring list. Samson has NHL scouts talking and could end up getting drafted this year. He was paired with Dowhaniuk late in the season and the two seemed to complement each other well. Jaren Brinson, a second-rounder in 2019, got 20 games under his belt as a 16-year-old after starting the season injured. Aiden Reeves, a 2002-born blueliner, and Majid Kaddoura, heading into his 20-year-old season, could also be back next season.
Winger Craig Armstrong, the Cougars’ ninth-overall pick in the 2018 WHL draft, was held to just one goal in 62 games last year as a rookie but this year showed his true capabilities. Just 17, a strong and stocky native of Airdrie, Alta., proved difficult for opponents to move around the net and he used his speed to create offence, leading the Cats in scoring with 13 points, including seven goals.
With Ilijah Colina choosing not to play his final junior season and Mitch Koehner loaned to Spokane because he was unable to cross the border from Minnesota, that created even more opportunity for the Cougar rookies to strut their stuff. Kyren Gronick, if he hadn’t hurt his shoulder and missed five games, easily could have topped the Cats’ scoring chart. He surprised everyone, putting up five goals and 11 points playing the right side on a line mostly with Ethan Browne and Jonny Hooker. Hooker finished with six goals and 11 points while Upper filled in for the injured Gronick on the top scoring line and that helped bump his totals to five goals and 11 points.
Connor Bowie and Blake Eastman became the Cougars’ bash brothers as linemates, using their bulk and aggressive dispositions to open space for rookies like Carter MacAdams. Fischer O’Brien, a local product acquired in a trade from Lethbridge, proved himself as a top-notch penalty-killer with soft hands around the net and who can play in any situation.
The Cougars had seven 2001-born players and despite the logjam Lamb said it wasn’t difficult keeping them happy with their playing time. Aside from Brendan Boyle, who hurt his shoulder and was sidelined for 10 games, all the 19-year-olds played key roles.
“It was kind of perfect for us because we could spread our young guys around and still have some veteran leadership in the lines,” said Lamb. “Right through our whole lineup we had young with old, which was a really good balance for us.”
Riley Heidt, the second-overall pick in the 2020 WHL draft behind Regina’s budding superstar Connor Bedard. proved himself as an excellent face-off specialist and despite his youth, having just turned 16, he put up some good numbers with two goals and eight points in 22 games.
“There were times there where he was getting tough matchups, there’s a lot of factors that go into how he played and I think he showed really well,” said Lamb. “It’s not easy to come in and bang out that type of face-offs. He’s very gritty too; he’s going to be fine.”
LW Davin Griffin is the other potential returning forward for next season.
Goaltending was a position of strength for the Cougars. Taylor Gauthier played the best hockey of his career, winning back-to-back WHL goalie-of-the-week awards in May. That came just after sophomore Tyler Brennan left to play for Canada in the U-18 world championship. Brennan played four games and was solid in all four and his absence over the final three weeks created opportunity for 16-year-old Ty Young, who did not look out of his element in the three games he played.
“(Gauthier) was unbelievable and we didn’t expect him to play that much, but once again Goats just seems to get a lot of games in the Prince George Cougar uniform,” said Lamb.
Scoring goals remains a challenge for the Cougars, who scored just 57 times (19th in the WHL) but they allowed just 62 (seventh-fewest in the league). That’s not going to change overnight and their wins next season will likely be low-scoring affairs. That commitment to defence is a product of the players’ disciplined approach and willingness to listen to their coaches preaching systems play.
“We don’t have those 19-year-olds that are high-end goals scorers that can take the heat off our young guys,” said Lamb. “Ziemmer led with nine goals, which is a pretty good pace in a regular season and some other guys were chipping away but that’s where it’s going to be coming form in the future years. These guys can score goals, but more importantly they learned how to play a team game.”
Off the ice, the Cougars were tested for COVID-19 regularly throughout their time in the WHL hub and not one player or staff member came back with a positive test. That’s in sharp contrast to the Rockets, who had several players test positive two games into the season and were forced into quarantine for the first two weeks of April. That raised the Cougars’ anxiety level considerably.
“It was a little sketchy when (the Rockets) got it there because we were a little worried we’d get shut down but everyone handled it and stuck to protocols really well,” said Cougar captain Jack Sander. “Our equipment manager Chico (Dhanjal) and our trainer Mike Matthies did a great job keeping us in line and wiping things down and making sure we’re doing it properly. There was a lot of steps we had to take, even just little things throughout the day. It was monotonous and a grind sometimes but it was definitely necessary.”
The fear of catching the virus before anybody on the team had received their vaccine shots was real, perhaps more so to the coaches and staff who gave up the sanctity of their homes and left their families for two months to make the season happen.
“There was times we didn’t think we’d get through it, with some of the cases that were coming out, but we did, and what a job everybody did, from the (Cougars) ownership to Kamloops and the league, it was a lot of work,” said Lamb. “Every time we got tested you’re just like, man, are we going to go through it? Because if someone comes back and it’s a positive test, it goes through the whole group.
“But we followed the rules right to a T and tried to do everything the right way and at the end of the day it all worked. We got our games in, we got a great evaluation, our team got better, individually we got better – it was a success on a lot of fronts.”
