A new city on a different team hasn't changed Drew Owsley's outlook on life as a WHL goaltender.
He expects the winning to continue.
Now sporting the scowling cat of the Prince George Cougars over his game gear, the 20-year-old from Lethbridge packed some stellar statistics in his suitcase after being sent to Prince George in a summer trade after three seasons with the Tri-City Americans.
As the Americans' go-to guy in net the past two seasons, he had 36 wins in 55 games last year, 33 wins in 50 games in 2009-10. He's also a proven winner in the postseason with 18 victories over two seasons, 12 of which came in the 2010 playoffs when he helped push Tri-City to the WHL final.
"I'm just going to give the team a chance to win every game and work hard and compete for every save," said Owsley. "I've got some experience and I come with a winning attitude and try to win every game and that's huge for this team. We don't want to to be just an average team, we want to be a great team and hopefully I can carry that into this year and make a long run in the playoffs, where my experience will come into play."
Knowing the Cougars' lack of playoff success over most of their 17-year history in Prince George, Owsley isn't looking at the past. He's seen in training camp the Cougars are top-loaded with older, experienced talent, including six returning defencemen who know their way around WHL arenas and he has high hopes.
"I was pretty excited for the opportunity to come here and just getting the vibe from the team, we have a winning attitude and that is really exciting," said the five-foot-eight, 170-pound Owsley.
"We played the Cougars four times last year and all four were tight games. They gained a lot of respect from the league last year and this year I think we're going to surprise a lot of people."
Owsley won't see any action this weekend in St. Albert, Alta., where the Cougars open their exhibition season against the Red Deer Rebels Sunday and the Calgary Hitmen on Monday (both 10 a.m. PT starts). That gives the Cougars' staff a better chance to watch 17-year-olds Devon Fordyce, Tyler Santos and Brett Zarowny fight for the job as Owsley's backup this season.
Fourth-year forward Greg Fraser endured the lean times when the Cougars were WHL bottom-feeders and says the acquisition of Owsley is the missing piece that just might solve the puzzle of how to bring a championship to Prince George.
"We've got Owl in goal instead of having 18-year-old first-years and it's going to be a big change having a guy who's proven himself in the league in the net and a big confidence-booster for everyone on the team," Fraser said.
"We improved a lot last year and we're hoping to improve the same amount this year. We have a pretty old team now with a lot of experience in the league. If we can get another 15 or 20 wins [more than last season] that will put us up around 50 wins, which would make us contenders for the B.C. Division [crown]."
The Cougars flirted with first place last season as late as the January trade deadline. But Ty Rimmer and James Priestner were unable to consistently get the job done in net and they fell to seventh in the conference and made a quick playoff exit.
"You can't blame it all on goaltending, it had to do with how we played, but certainly some of the goals hurt us," said Cougars general manager Dallas Thompson, who traded Rimmer and a pair of draft picks to Tri-City for Owsley. "We obviously needed a guy who's proven back there and Drew became available and we jumped on him right away.
"He's proved all the way along, both in the regular season and playoffs, that he can win and all we ask of him is that he keeps that up."
