Sixteen-year-old rookie goalie Taylor Gauthier did what he could to shore up the Prince George Cougars.
He had his parents and sister from Calgary in the crowd watching him play his first WHL game and he wasn’t about to disappoint them or himself. That, he didn’t.
Too bad the veteran elements of his team failed to respond with the same enthusiasm.
Their listless efforts in the Saturday night rematch with the Spokane Chiefs at CN Centre resulted in a disappointing 5-1 loss which kept the Cats without a point on opening weekend of the Western Hockey League season.
Sure, the Cougars are young and rebuilding, sporting a lineup loaded with rookies just like Gauthier, getting their feet wet in WHL waters. But for every first-year neophyte on the ice Saturday there were twice that many Cougars who should have known better than to perform a disappearing act when they were needed most.
Too often they left Gauthier swimming in the deep end without a life preserver.
“It was a huge milestone for me – I’ve wanted to play in this league since I was a little kid,” said Gauthier, whose six-foot-one, 180-pound body casts a large shadow. “I thought I played a pretty good game and got better as the game went on.
“It probably wasn’t our best performance, I know we’ve got a lot more in us. The first two goals were tough to digest but I knew there was nothing I could do about them.
“We had the jitters this weekend and that’s a really good team over there, (the Chiefs) have some top-end guys and I’m thinking they’re going to be a force throughout the season.”
The Chiefs exposed the Cougars’ defensive weaknesses and left town with two wins, stimulating more than a few conversations among the Cougars’ crowd that, at least in the early going, this could well be a lean season for the defending B.C. Division champions.
Unlike Friday’s 4-2 loss to the Chiefs, the Cats got their offence untracked early. Vladislav Mikhalchuk, their 18-year-old import from Belarus, chipped the puck off the stick of Hudson Elynuik at the far blueline and took off on a breakaway. Dawson Weatherill made the save but the rebound was left for Jared Bethune and he buried it. But just 28 seconds later the Cougars got sloppy in their own zone and Rykr Cole was left unguarded in front of the net to swat in a goalmouth pass from Riley Woods. Then Elynuik gave the Chiefs the lead 13 minutes in, finishing off a slick three-way passing play.
Left to fend for himself surrounded by Chiefs on the first two goals, Gauthier probably should have stopped the Chiefs’ third goal, a partially-screened point shot fired on the fly from Nolan Reid, which upped the lead to 3-1 early in the second period. But on this night, goaltending was not the deciding factor. The shots were even at 25 apiece.
“For a 16-year-old I thought Taylor was really composed and he held himself real well and made some real big saves early for us,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “He’s going to be a real good goalie in this league for a long, long time.”
The Cougars’ lack of discipline played into the hands of their opponents. On three occasions they took themselves off the power play with dumb penalties. There was Joel Lakusta’s slash in the first period, Kody McDonald’s tripping call in the second period and Brogan O’Brien’s momentary lapse of reason in the third when he slashed the stick of Chiefs winger Taylor Ross. Not the way to mount a comeback.
“Those are penalties 180 feet from our net that can’t happen,” said Matvichuk. “It’s a matter of getting in the right spot of working harder away from the puck so you put yourself in the position where you’re not reaching with your stick.
“It’s early in the season and let’s give Spokane credit, they’re going to be a powerhouse. They’ve got some guys who can put the puck in the net and with (Ty) Smith on the back end, they’re going to be top-two in our conference. It’s tough to start out against a team like that but we’ve got to get better.”
The Cougars offered some pushback coming out for the third period but had no luck around the net. Lakusta nailed the crossbar and rookie Max Kryski was stuffed by Weatherill on two close-in chances in the opening minute of the period.
The Chiefs had nobody to impress but themselves and played a virtually perfect third period despite being outshot 10-4. They kept the sightlines clear in front of their goalie, got to all the rebounds before the Cougars and gave up only a couple dangerous scoring chances.
“We knew it was their goalie’s first game in the league and our goal was to pepper him with shots in the first period and continue that and try to break his confidence, but he did a pretty good job for his first WHL game,” said Elynuik. “When you’re up by two goals in the third period you’re definitely more defence-focused and we did a good job getting the pucks deep and just giving them nothing.”
They were at their opportunistic best late in the period with Gauthier sitting on the bench to allow an extra skater. Elynuik started a two-on-one rush at the open net and Eli Zummack finished it. Less than a minute later, with Gauthier back in his crease, Woods pumped in a rebound to cap the scoring. Two goals on just four Chiefs shots in the final 20 minutes – it was just that kind of night for the Cougars.
If nothing else, the two losses served as a valuable learning experience for the Cats as they prepare for their first road game of the season Friday in Seattle.
“Definitely we have to stay more disciplined if we’re looking to win some games here,” said Cougars left winger Jackson Leppard, whose fourth-line icetime with Chance Adrian and Liam Ryan was amped up considerably in the third period when Matvichuk benched his two veteran forward lines.
“When we go on the power play we’ve got to capitalize, we can’t be taking penalties and taking that away. We have to get better than that.”
