Shoot.
For Prince George Cougars fans, that’s the sanitized version of what they were muttering under their collective breath when the reality of Saturday’s overtime outcome at CN Centre set in.
The Cats fans in the crowd of 1,449 watching the final test of the WHL preseason wanted Vladislav Mikhalchuk to end what was an ugly game against the Kamloops Blazers when he took a 2-on-1 pass from Ryan Schoettler with a clear path in front of him to the Blazers net.
Instead of shooting, the Belarusian winger elected to pass back to Schoettler, who by that time was too deep in front of goalie Dylan Garand to do anything with the puck. Seconds later, after a face-off win in the Cougars end, Blazers forward Josh Pillar gained the puck along the side boards and rifled a wrister that went high over the shoulder of goalie Taylor Gauthier 40 seconds into OT for a 4-3 Kamloops win.
The Cougars ended up with a 3-1-1-0 record in exhibition play, both losses at the hands of the Blazers (4-1-0-0). While the Blazers had a reason to smile after beating their traditional WHL rivals again, none of what happened on the ice Saturday matters to either team. The real season starts this weekend.
Defenceman Joel Lakusta, just back from the St. Louis Blues’ rookie camp, appeared to have bailed out the Cougars with an unassisted goal to tie the game with 2:33 left in the third period. He dragged the puck across the slot and with two Blazers defenders hounding him he kicked the puck up from his skate to his stick, then fired off a wrist shot past Garand to make it 3-3.
That came 10 minutes after Blazers defenceman Luke Zazula fooled Gauthier with a pass attempt into the slot that slid the puck along the ice right through the legs of the Cougar goalie, giving the Blazers their third lead of the night.
Quinn Schmiemann, on a 5-on-3 Kamloops power play, and Cougars rookie Tyson Upper, on a shorthanded breakaway roof shot, traded goals 27 seconds apart in the first period. Connor Zary, for the Blazers, and Cougars veteran Josh Curtis, on a Prince George power play, scored early in the second period.
It was a tough game for Gauthier, who played well while having to face all kinds of bodies banging in front of him. The 17-year-old was called upon to make at least a dozen difficult saves.
“It’s the last tune-up before regular season starts and both teams were going hard and I think I did an alright job seeing through traffic and battling hard,” said Gauthier.
“It’s a tough loss – obviously OT losses are always hard to take. We just have to regroup and get ready for the next game. We’ll probably take this as a wake-up call. The new guys coming into the league will see how the intensity is in the regular season and for the veteran guys it shows we’ve got to ramp it up a level and guide the young guys with us.”
Penalties were the story of the game. The Blazers went 1-for-10 on the power play while the Cougars scored once on nine opportunities.
“It was an ugly hockey game from the get-go,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “Our guys were just trying too hard. They knew it was the last exhibition game and the only one at home and they were trying to do too much instead of sticking to our game plan.
“You lose so much momentum, you lose your bench when you’re taking that many minors. Some guys don’t play for 10 minutes and some guys play every second shift. Even if we win that game, it’s ugly. It’s one of those you burn, and now you get ready for the regular season.”
The bad blood started to spill early and the hacks and whacks coming from both teams began a near-constant parade of penalties. It was, after all, the renewal of the Kamloops-Prince George rivalry and somebody had to set the tone, but it was difficult to watch.
From a fan’s perspective, it certainly wasn’t much fun seeing the red-striped arms of referees Bronson Tazelaar and Nick Panter going up to signal a penalty about every third hit. The guys in black and white knew Jeff Bradley, the WHL’s officiating co-ordinator, was watching from the press box and taking notes and there wasn’t much room for leniency with the players showing an obvious lack of restraint. The refs went out of their way to make sure no transgressions would escape the long arm of the law.
It was the first taste of the rivalry between the teams for new Kamloops head coach Serge Lajoie, a former defenceman who played briefly for the Blazers before moving on to the University of Alberta as a player and a coach. He coached the Golden Bears to a U Sports championship last season. He didn’t like what he saw from either in Saturday’s game.
“Hopefully that’s not an indication of how games between these two organizations are going to be, it’s unfortunate because there was no flow to the game,” said Lajoie. “We’re still in an evaluation period and special teams is not something we’ve worked on a lot.
“I really liked coming up to Prince George, my first time up here – it’s a really nice facility, it’s just unfortunate it wasn’t a better game.”
With Dylan Ferguson still with the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Max Palaga trying to shake off an illness, Lajoie started 17-year-old Rayce Ramsay, who faced just 10 shots and gave up one goal playing half the game. The 16-year-old Garand replaced him and allowed two goals on 14 shots. The shot count favoured the Blazers 37-24.
LOOSE PUCKS: Cougars defenceman Austin Crossley got a one-game suspension for sticking out his knee with an open-ice hit on Blazer centre Orrin Centazzo midway through the first period. Crossley received a major penalty for kneeing and game misconduct as well as an unsportsmanlike conduct minor as his immediate punishment… Centazzo was helped off the ice and went to the dressing room but returned in time for his next shift… Tazelaar and the three linesmen who split the duties for Saturday’s game – Blair Scott, Tyler Garden and Braiden Epp – are all rookies on the WHL list of officials. The 21-year-old Epp, a native of Prince George and former Spruce King forward who played four seasons in the B.C. Hockey League, is also breaking into the BCHL as a linesman this season… The Cougars start the season Friday in Victoria.
