The Prince George Cougars have a new goalie with them this weekend on the road in Washington State.
Jacob Herman has been called up from the Swift Current Legionnaires of the Saskatchewan Triple-A Midget Hockey League. He will fill in as the back-up to starter Taylor Gauthier for the Cats' games tonight against the Spokane Chiefs and Saturday when they play the Tri-City Americans.
Herman will be taking the place of Tyler Brennan who got hurt in practice this week and is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Herman, a free-agent signing added to the Cougars' protected list last year, has a 4-2-0 record in seven games with a 2.41 goals-against average and .920 save percentage this season with the Legionnaires. Last season with his midget team he went 15-8-0 with a 2.57 average and .900 save percentage, with two shutouts. He turns 17 on Wednesday.
Brennan, 16, recorded his first career WHL victory last Saturday at CN Centre, a 4-1 win over the Kelowna Rockets. He's expected to be back to health by next Friday, when the Cougars begin a two-game series against Spokane at CN Centre.
The Cougars will have defenceman Cole Moberg back in the lineup to face the Chiefs tonight (7:05 p.m., The Goat 94.3 FM). Moberg , a seventh-round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks this year, suffered an upper-body injury in a collision in the Sept. 21 game against the Vancouver Giants at CN Centre and missed four games. Forwards Jackson Leppard (lower body) and Ethan Browne (lower body) are still out with day-to-day lower-body ailments. Centre Ilijah Colina is one or two weeks away from returning. He's been out since the preseason with a shoulder injury.
The Cougars announced earlier this week that the first four players they picked this year in the bantam draft have been invited to play in the WHL Cup tournament, Oct. 23-27 in Calgary.
Defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk and forward Koehn Ziemmer, the respective third- and fourth-overall picks in the 2019 draft, will play for Team Alberta, as will defenceman Jaren Brinson, who went in the second round, 36th overall.
Defenceman Kyren Gronick of Regina, taken in the second round, 26th overall, will play for Team Saskatchewan.
The four-team tournament includes the highest-rated players in the under-16 age category and is the first step in Hockey Canada's program of excellence. Team B.C. is the defending champion, having beaten Alberta in the 2017 final. The tournament wasn't played last year because on the Canada Winter Games.
