Cats purrfect heading into home opener
Four games into his career as a Western Hockey League head coach, Richard Matvichuk has something going not even the likes of career coaches Ken Hodge, Don Hay or Don Nachbaur can touch. A perfect record. Four games and four wins – not bad for a junior hockey rookie behind the bench.
Matvichuk and the Cougars are off to a franchise-best start and they’ve made themselves the talk of the WHL after knocking off divisional opponents Victoria (twice), Vancouver and Kelowna, all victories on the road.
Tonight at CN Centre (7 p.m. start) the Cougars will try to stretch that run of wins to five when they open their home schedule in the first of a two-game series against the Kelowna Rockets.
The Cougars certainly had their hands full taking on the Rockets in a 2-1 win Wednesday in Kelowna. To put the cap on a triumphant tour they had to rely on some standup goaltending from Ty Edmonds and a seeing-eye, wide-angle, game-winning shot from Yan Khomenko.
The Cougars’ brass is obviously delighted with the team’s first-overall standing in the 22-team league, which is uncharted territory for long-suffering fans still waiting for the team to hang its first banner from the rafters of the building formerly known as the Prince George Multiplex.
There’s still a lot of hockey to be played before the coach-of-the year award is decided but there’s arguing this year’s edition of the Cougars has responded well to Matvichuk’s teaching methods and that of his assistants, Steve O’Rourke and Shawn Chambers. So far, on the ice, they can’t seem to lose.
“Without a doubt it’s gratifying knowing the stuff we did in training camp ad the team bonding we did in Banff right now looks like it all worked for us,” said Matvichuk. “It’s an ongoing thing and we feel if we put the work in and play the system properly it gives us a good chance to win.
“What’s impressed me is the tightness in our group. We don’t have one guy on the outside looking in. You look across the bench and everybody’s cheering for each other. A perfect example is (Aaron) Boyd gets into a fight and I’ve never seen our bench so happy. Josh Curtis scores a goal and everybody on the bench is standing up electrified. They’re willing to go to battle for each other and do whatever they have to make sure the guy next to them succeeds.”
The Cougars have been buying into Matvichuk’s defence-first approach, which worked so well for him last season with the Missouri Mavericks as the ECHL’s top coach. Aside from a wild 7-6 win against Vancouver, the Cougars have limited their opponents to one goal in each of the other three games.
They should be even better defensively with Sam Ruopp in the lineup tonight. The 20-year-old defenceman and Cougar captain was sent back Thursday from Columbus, where he’s been training with the Blue Jackets since August. Ruopp played one NHL preseason game for the Jackets last Friday, a 5-0 loss to St. Louis in which he finished a minus-4.
“Speaking with Columbus, he had a really good camp and for me, with the background I’ve had playing (as an NHL defenceman), it’s my job now to develop him into a pro player,” said Matvichuk. “Sam’s a player who has all the tools. He’s a leader in the dressing room and he’s going to play a lot of minutes.
“We’re fortunate to have the back end that we do, guys like (Josh) Anderson, (Tate) Olson, (Max Martin, (Shane) Collins, and now Sam Ruopp. (Shaun) Dosanjh has played fantastic for us and (Ryan) Schoettler has stepped in and doesn’t look out of place.”
Ty Edmonds already has three wins and is doing what’s expected from a 20-year-old goaltender. He sports a 1.67 goals-against average and .947 save percentage and earned his pay Wednesday, stifling the Rockets when they came on strong late in the game on the power play.
“As a 20-year-old player you have to be on top of your game and he has been and that’s a great plus for us and Nick (McBride) has been right there too,” said Matvichuk. “He didn’t get much help there in the second period in Vancouver and (replacing him with Edmonds) was a move I had to make more to crack the whip. It had nothing to do with the way Nick was playing.”
“We have a 1A and 1B punch in goal and we’re going to use it all year.”
Edmonds knows he’s going to have to share the load in net with the 19-year-old McBride and he’s fine with that. Whatever it takes to win and keep that streak alive.
“It’s a good feeling, we gelled as a team pretty quick and we got some key guys back, which definitely helped – we did a lot of team-building and a lot of credit has to go to our head coach from the pre-season on,” said Edmonds.
“I know everyone’s excited but it’s also very early and we’ve still got 68 games to go, so we’re pretty levelheaded at this point but excited to see where the season is going to take us. We have a lot of depth and a lot of strong forwards and we have a lot of strong defencemen as well. It’s going to be hard for guys to get in the lineup, even from a goaltending standpoint with myself and Nick.
“I’ve had some early success but Nick has also been playing well. A lot of credit goes to the defence and all the forwards are buying in with the backchecking in the d-zone and it helps. Everyone wants to keep the goals against down and it helps give Nick and I confidence and patience to know we won’t have to be making 40 saves every night.”
Cougars left winger Jared Bethune is leading the WHL scoring race with four goals and five assists. It doesn’t seem to matter who his linemates are, he’s a lightning rod. The 19-year-old started the season playing with Kody McDonald and Brad Morrison and the past two games has been grouped with Justin Almeida and Colby McAuley. McAuley has four goals and seven points, while Almeida (2-4-6), Morrison (0-6-6) and McDonald (2-3-5) are not far behind in point production.
In Kelowna, Bethune was in on both goals with a goal and an assist. He also killed penalties and drew power-play duty.
“Jared has really settled in this year,” said Matvichuk. “He really wanted to get going and be that lean-on-me, go-to guy and felt he didn’t have that in the last couple years. He wanted to come in and make a big splash early and that’s exactly what he’s done. He’s an electrifying player with a knack to score some goals.”
The Cougars still have two forwards in NHL camps – Jesse Gabrielle in Boston and Jansen Harkins in Winnipeg. Both are expected to play their second games of the preseason this weekend.
The Rockets had nine players attend NHL camps and all but two – defenceman Lucas Johansen (Washington) and forward Nick Merkley (Arizona) have returned. Centre Dillon Dube (Calgary) and left winger Calvin Thurkauf (Columbus) did not play for the Rockets Wednesday but should be in the lineup tonight.
“Ever since I came into the league, Kelowna has always been a top team and this year will be no different, they always have top-end players and they know how to win,” said Edmonds. “It was a good feeling winning against them (Wednesday) but we’ve got seven more against them and two more this weekend and they will be good games.”
Tonight’s game will be the first at CN Centre for Rockets head coach Jason Smith, hired over the summer to replace Brad Ralph. The 42-year-old from Calgary had a 16-year career as an NHL defenceman and is a former captain of the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers.