Cats trade captain to Portland
Hard work beats talent most nights in any sport.
Josh Maser proved that in a big way on the hockey rink Wednesday night at CN Centre. His extraordinary work ethic produced all four goals for the youthfully exuberant Prince George Cougars to give them a hard-fought, comefrom-behind 4-3 overtime win over the Vancouver Giants.
“It was a pretty crazy game, obviously we’ve had a lot of trades lately and a lot of new faces down in the room who don’t quite know our systems yet so we just had to keep things simple out there,” said Maser, a native of Houston now in his second season in the WHL.
“Any time we beat the Giants it’s special, but tonight I think was a really big win for our team and it brought us together a lot.”
Maser jumped on the rebound of teammate Joel Lakusta’s crossbar shot and from the face-off circle ripped in a high shot to end the game, 2:49 into overtime. It came just after the Giants had tied the game 3-3 in the final minute of regulation time.
Maser had given the Cougars their first lead of the night with his hat-trick goal with just 2:25 left in regulation. The 18-year-old winger started the play with a solid hit into the side boards and linemate Josh Curtis took the puck into the corner as Maser drove to the net. He took the pass from Curtis and let go a close-in shot from a sharp angle and the puck kicked off goalie David Tendeck, and bounced off the chest of Giant winger Brayden Watts and into the net. It was Maser’s second three-goal game of the season.
But the Giants, one of the hottest teams in the WHL, found a way to force OT and Ty Ronning was the triggerman. The Giants’ scoring leader jammed the net with 29 seconds left and Tendeck on the bench for the extra skater. Ron- ning had two whacks at a rebound before he batted it in past Taylor Gauthier with a backhander – his third goal of the game.
The Giants had a 2-0 lead eight minutes into the second period.
Ronning followed up on a rebound left by linemate Tyler Popovich and dumped it into an empty net to open the scoring 10:16 into the game. Ronning, who started the game second in the WHL scoring race, picked up his second goal of the game and 38th this season when he took the carom of a Bowen Byram point shot off the end boards and deposited it into a wide-open net with seven minutes gone in the second period.
The Cougars started to take control of the game in the middle period. They continued to create odd-man rushes and outshot the Giants 15-7. One of those shots was a rocket off the stick of Maser. He took the pass from Curtis off the side boards and let go a hard snapshot that found the net low behind Tendeck. Gauthier drew an assist – the first career point for the 16-year-old rookie from Calgary.
Gauthier had a strong game in goal, picking up where he left off Tuesday night when he stopped all 10 shots he faced coming in to relieve Tavin Grant, with the Giants on their way to a 5-1 win. He made 27 saves Wednesday as the Cougars outshot the Giants 37-30.
On the day the Cougars traded away their captain, 19-year-old defenceman Dennis Cholowski, completing a series of six trades to revamp their lineup with young players and draft picks, the Cats tied it at two apiece just eight seconds into the third period. Maser gained the puck at centre and was allowed to cruise in on the left wing, scoring a 30-foot wrister high to Tendeck’s blocker side.
The Giants had a goal waved off with nine minutes left in the third period when Jared Dmitriw batted in a shot with his glove.
The win improved the Cougars’ record to 16-19-4-2, while the Giants, who had won nine of their last 11, dropped to 24-15-3-2.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Giants traded backup goalie Todd Scott along with F Brendan Semchuk for RW Davis Koch and an exchange of third-round picks. That left the Giants without a backup goalie. Cougars goalie Isaiah DiLaura was listed in the lineup as the Vancouver backup and would have been called into service if Tendeck got hurt in Wednesday’s game.