Cholowski steps up for Cats in Langley
Dennis Cholowski obviously likes playing hockey close to the comforts of home.
Two games in his hometown of Langley this past weekend reminded the Prince George Cougars why they’re glad they have Cholowski around as their top defenceman and captain.
When the Cougars needed a goal in the third period Monday afternoon to tie the game and force the Vancouver Giants into overtime, Cholowski’s offensive instincts kicked in. He carried the puck over the blueline leading a 2-on-2 rush with Jackson Leppard and followed the play deep into the offensive zone, sneaking through the defence to redirect Leppard’s low pass into the net behind Giants goalie Todd Scott.
That goal, Cholowski’s second of the game, tied it 3-3 with seven minutes left in regulation time, guaranteeing a valuable point for Cougars, who went on to lose 4-3. James Malm cashed in a 2-on-1 break for the gamewinner two minutes into overtime.
Combined with the Cougars’ wild 7-6 victory over the Giants Saturday in Langley, the Cougars gained three of a possible four points in the two games.
Cholowski had two goals and two assists in that game and has obviously cranked up his game a notch since attending Canada’s world junior team camp a couple weeks ago.
“I’ve been fortunate to (coach) some top-end defencemen in this league with Haydn Fleury, Brendan Guhle and now Dennis Cholowski and I feel (Cholowski is) probably the best player of the three – just his all-around game,” said Cougars associate coach Steve O’Rourke.
“The other two had some tremendous upsides and did great things. All three of them, their skating ability is awesome, but Dennis’s awareness on the ice and his constant puck distributing in every situation, that’s what I don’t think people realize. He plays with so much smarts every night, his head is up, he reads the play he never panics and I can’t remember the last time he’s had a turnover.”
Cholowski, Detroit’s first-round draft pick in 2015, came to the Cougars this year after a season in the NCAA at St. Cloud State and O’Rourke says he’s fulfilling the promise he had the day he arrived in Cougars camp in August.
“The thing that’s changed and the reason he came to us is to play defence, and that’s what he’s done here,” said O’Rourke. “In probably the last month he’s become way better. His positioning, his hardness around the net has come leaps and bounds.”
Jared Dmitriw had two goals and two assists Monday to spark the offence for the Giants (20-14-3-2). He tied the game 13:26 into the first period, five minutes after Brayden Watts scored on a Vancouver power play. Dmitriw scored the only goal of the second period and assisted on Malm’s OT winner.
Kody McDonald also scored for the Cougars (14-18-3-2), his fourth in two games, just 14 seconds after Cholowski’s first goal, which prompted a goaltending switch. Todd Scott replaced David Tendeck, who gave up two goals on six Cougar shots.
In Saturday’s game, the Cougars appeared doomed to another loss, having blown a 4-0 lead, trailing the Giants 6-5 with only 3.2 seconds left on the clock.
An icing call gave the Cats a chance. Centre Jared Bethune won the draw and chipped the puck over to Josh Curtis and it kicked off his feet to Cholowski, who drew it to his forehand and scored to tie the game with just three-tenths of a second left in regulation time.
But the best was yet to come for the Cougars. They went to work on a power play late in overtime with Giants defenceman Matt Barberis serving a hooking call and McDonald completed his hat trick, scoring the winner with 11.7 seconds left in the five-minute OT session.
McDonald circled with the puck in the Giants zone and from the top of the slot unleashed a wristshot that found the target with teammate Tyler Maser screening the vision of goalie Scott.
“Give our guys credit, it wasn’t a Picasso, it wasn’t how we drew it up, but they make this game 60 minutes for a reason and we found a way with 0.3 seconds left to get it down and then our power play that we’ve been working in extensively took over,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk.
The tying goal came with McDonald serving a tripping penalty he drew less than two minutes left in regulation time which prevented Ronning from scoring his fourth goal of the game into an empty net. The Cougars started overtime with 19 seconds of McDonald’s penalty left to kill and got away unscathed.
The late-game dramatics were only part of the story of a wild seesaw battle in which the Cougars blasted out of the gate to a 4-0 lead in the first period. Cholowski got the first one for Prince George just 1:50 after the opening faceoff. Then Max Kryski, Curtis and McDonald all cashed in scoring chances before the game was seven minutes old.
Cougar goalie Isaiah DiLaura made some tough saves down the stretch – 41 saves in total, as his team was outshot 47-39. For Di Laura, a 17-year-old native of Lakeville, Minn., it was his first career WHL victory and that did not go unrewarded in the Cougars dressing room after the game.
“They weren’t going to quit, Isaiah DiLaura is a key part in our dressing room, he’s really wellliked and he’s doing the right thing and he got the player-of-the-game tonight,” said Matvichuk. “The guys couldn’t be happier by chanting his name after and holding him up and that’s fantastic to see from a coach’s standpoint that when you put this much time and effort into the kids that they’re actually enjoying it.
The Cougars host the Tri-City Americans Friday and Saturday at CN Centre, their first home games in three weeks.