On the rare occasions when the Prince George Cougars manage to score on Drew Owsley in practice, it's hard for the successful shooter to contain his delight and begin an arms-raised celebration.
It just doesn't happen that often.
There's a logical reason for that. Whether it be in practice, in a game situation, or playing NHL 2012 on PlayStation 3, Owsley always has his game-face on. The five-foot-eight, 170-pound native of Lethbridge just refuses to give up, and when his teammates see that effort constantly exhibited by their goaltender, it's positively infectious.
"Right from when he was 10 years old, every puck matters to him, he doesn't give up on it, if it's in the net or if the drill's over or the whistle blows in a game," said Phil Guenter, the Cougars goaltending coach, who has worked with Owsley in Lethbridge for 10 years.
"He's athletic, he's very intelligent and he makes everyone around him better. He's a great athlete, a great golfer, a great baseball player, he excels at everything he does. Right from peewee on up, he's had to prove that undersized guys can play, and I think he's proving that if you battle and work hard, good things will happen."
Owsley's debut as Cougar last week in Kamloops was truly spectacular. He was the difference-maker, with 32 saves in a 1-0 win over the Blazers. That earned Owsley a nomination for the Canadian Hockey League's goaltender-of-the-week award.
"Obviously it was a good start, I would have taken any win, the shutout was a bonus and I'm excited about the home-opener," said Owsley, who will get the start tonight (7 p.m.) when the Cougars host the Victoria Royals in the first of a two-game homestand at CN Centre. "It's always fun to play at home for the first time and hopefully we'll come out with a win. I'm going to compete every night for every save, I won't take any nights off."
The season-opening win was the 10th career shutout for Owsley, who played 2 1/2 seasons for the Tri-City Americans before he was traded to the Cougars this summer.
Charles Inglis was the only goalscorer in Friday's game, but it took a team effort to hold off the Blazers. The Cougars made Owsley's night, getting in the way of 33 Blazer shots, and that's a trend Owsley would obviously like to see continue. Defenceman Cody Carlson was a human eclipse with 12 blocked shots.
Even in a 7-1 loss to Kamloops to end the preseason two weeks ago, Owsley's work ethic never lagged. Cougars head coach Dean Clark says he hasn't seen a goalie as willing to sacrifice his body to make a save since he coached Alexandre Fomitchev to the Memorial Cup final in 1999 with Calgary.
"He has a great mindset, even with our own players, he competes on everything," said Clark. "I knew after that exhibition game he'd want to come back and prove a point and he did. He made some saves there, I'm sure they had their hands in the air a couple times when they thought the goals were going in, but he was there to make the save."
On Sunday, the Cougars board the bus to begin a 14-day, seven-game trip through the East Division. They won't play at home again until Oct. 21, when Tri-City visits CN Centre for a two-game series. By that time, Owsley figures the Cougars will have emerged as a B.C. Division frontrunner.
"We're a really good team with a lot of talent, a lot of leadership and experience in the room, a lot of 19-year-olds and that goes a long way," said Owsley. "We have six defenceman right now who can play at any time in the game and our depth on D is really good and that will be huge late in games."
