Cougars shutout Winterhawks

The Prince George Cougars ordered the special Sunday afternoon at Portland Veterans Arena and let goalie Tavin Grant pick up the tab.

Special teams and the play of their 19-year-old goalie Grant were the story for the Cougars in a 3-0 win over the Portland Winterhawks. Grant made 47 saves for his first Western Hockey League career shutout, backing the defending B.C. Division champions (1-3-0-0) to their first win of the season. On Monday, he was named the WHL goaltender of the week for his efforts.

The Cougars scored on both of their power-play chances and successfully killed off all seven penalty situations in the game.

Kody McDonald opened the scoring at even strength in the first period 4:49 in his first of the season. He took a backhanded pass from Jared Bethune in the slot and went forehand-backhand to fool goalie Shane Farkas through the legs.

The Cougars scored two quick ones 86 seconds apart to start the second period, after Portland defenceman Keona Texeira had been sent off late the first period on a double-minor penalty for boarding Nikita Popugaev into the corner.

Forty-seven seconds into the period, Vladislav Mikhalchuk, the Cougars’ 18-year-old import forward from Belarus, deflected Dennis Cholowski‚s point shot for his first WHL goal. That came a split-second before the first penalty to Texeira had expired. Bethune also drew an assist.

Then at 2:13, Jackson Leppard made it 3-0 with his first goal of 2017-18, pouncing on a rebound after the puck was shot in from Joel Lakusta. Just before that goal, the Cats caught a break when Winterhawks centre Cody Glass nailed the goalpost behind Grant while on the penalty kill.

Not long after Leppard’s goal, Cholowski shot the puck over the glass, with Ryan Schoettler already off for interference. The Hawks came close to scoring on the two-man advantage but Grant was in a zone of his own and did not falter.

He was at his best in the third period while Portland outshot the Cougars 234. With three minutes left the Hawks got Farkus to the bench and replaced him with an extra skater, then gained a 6-on4 advantage when Schoettler was caught holding. But the penalty-killers did their job without allowing much damage. Grant came up with one of his best stops with about 1:30 left when he lunged with his blocker to rob Evan Weinger.

“The thing that stood out for me is the way he handled the puck,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk in the post-game broadcast. “He made tape-to-tape passes when he had to, he listened to the defencemen either forehand or backhand calling for a puck and near the end, the 5-on-3, he made some huge saves when he had to and the simple saves he made he controlled the rebounds and put them into the corners where he should.

“There’s no doubt that team can score but the five guys played well in front of him which kept everything to the outside. We completely believe in Tavin and when he sees the puck he’s going to stop it and he proved that again tonight.”

For 12 of the Cougars in the lineup Sunday who played on last year’s team, it was their chance to eke out some revenge on a Winterhawks team that knocked the heavily-favoured Cats out of the playoffs in April in a six-game opening-round series. The Cougar veterans, especially Shane Collins and Josh Anderson on defence and forwards Bethune, McDonald, Aaron Boyd, Josh Curtis, and Popugaev stepped up with an extraordinary effort, setting a tenacious example for their younger counterparts on the team. As a result, for the first time in four games, they left the rink with points in the standings.

“Obviously our guys that were here last year had a bitter taste in their mouths and it showed from the drop of the puck tonight,” said Matvichuk. “Our guys came in and didn’t wait to see what would happen in the game, we knew we had the energy and our desire not to quit was fantastic. Our younger guys played good but our older guys played better.”

The Cougars play Wednesday in Kamloops, then return to CN Centre for games Friday and Saturday against the Kelowna Rockets. Their weekend trip started Friday in Seattle with a 4-1 loss to the Thunderbirds.