The Prince George Cougars wanted to get a read on the Seattle Thunderbirds, their opponents the next two nights at CN Centre, and former T-bird winger Mike MacLean has the book on them.
"They're a hardworking team so we have to match their intensity, I know they go all out in their practices and games so we just have to come ready to play," said MacLean. "They have a culture there that they build in their dressing room and they always come out hard and through that they've been winning games.
"Their 20-year-olds (forwards Nolan Volcan, Noah Philp and Zack Andrusiak) are high-end players and good goal-scorers and we have to shut down those three guys offensively and just play good defence here."
MacLean had a chance to renew acquaintances with his former teammates, who practiced right after the Cougars Thursday morning.
"I was pretty good buddies with Liam Hughes down in Seattle, he's a good goaltender for sure and we have to work hard to get a lot of shots on him or we won't have a lot of success scoring," said MacLean. "I'm assuming I'm going to get some questions asked about him soon here."
The six-foot-six-and-a-half, 234-pound MacLean joined the Cougars Oct. 9 in a trade from the T-birds for 17-year-old forward Keegan Craik and a fifth-round choice in the 2019 bantam draft. The 20-year-old Penticton native played 38 regular-season games and five playoff games for Seattle last season after getting called up from Lloydminster of the AJHL. He played the previous two years in the KIJHL for the Summerland Steam.
MacLean will be playing tonight on a line with Tyson Upper and Brendan Boyle.
The Cougars (5-7-1-2, fourth in B.C. Division) will be trying to end a four-game winless streak and get back into a playoff position. They're tied in points with third-place Kamloops (6-6-0-1) and are just one point ahead of fifth-place Kelowna.
Seattle (7-4-2-0) holds the top wild-card position in the Western Conference, two points behind Tri-City for third in the U.S. Division. The T-birds are coming off a 5-1 loss Tuesday in Spokane.
"They play very hard and are very structured and their '98s are very good and we have to find a way to play within our system and play the right way," said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk, whose team lost 5-4 to Brandon on Tuesday.
"It's starting to sound like a broken record but the more we play the right way, it doesn't matter who we're playing, we end up on the offensive side of it and end up dominating hockey periods. We haven't been able to put it together for 60 minutes but it's coming. The second period hasn't been very friendly to us."
With Ilijah Colina still out with an upper-body injury, the Cougars have added Kjell Kjemhus to the roster. Kjemhus played 25 games for the Cougars last season since arriving in a trade from the Regina Pats and had two goals and two assists. He's been playing this season in the BCHL with the Vernon Vipers and had one assist in 10 games.
Cougars defenceman Cameron MacPhee is still out with an upper-body injury.
