New Cat Colina triggers victory
The kids are alright. Now three games into the new reality of life without a handful of key veterans, traded away in advance of last week’s roster deadline, the Prince George Cougars have won twice, including a 5-2 triumph over the TriCity Americans Saturday night in Kennewick, Wash.
Six trades in the week which led up to Wednesday’s deadline left the Cougars with one of the most youthful lineups in the Western Hockey League and they now average about 17 years of age. One of those newcomers, 17-year-old centre Ilijah Colina, scooped in a two-player, five-draft-pick deal which sent pro prospect defenceman Dennis Cholowski to the Portland Winterhawks, emerged as the first star Saturday with a goal and an assist.
Colina, a native of North Delta now in his second WHL season, scored his first goal as a Cougar and fourth this season and also assisted on Jackson Leppard’s game-winner, 13:40 into the second period.
The five-foot-eight, 169-pound Colina was also effective in the face-off circle, winning 10 of 12 draws Saturday and he drew power-play duty. The Cats’ scored on one of their three power-place chances and held the offensive zone well in those opportunities.
Watching him work with the extra skater, Cougars assistant coach Steve O’Rourke said Colina could be a steal in the Cholowski trade.
“I’ve been in the league for five years and I take the heat for the power play, it wasn’t great last year and it hasn’t been great this year – every year you have talent, your power play is good and brains is what matters,” said O’Rourke.
“Last year, we had great players but the hockey sense wasn’t as high as a guy like Colina. He sees those plays, like tonight, working it down on the half-wall. Give credit to Leppard (on his goal), he jumped up into the high slot there but it was delivered by Colina being patient, taking it down and seeing the ice – just a big presence for us.”
Colina also had an assist in the Cougars’ 6-2 loss Friday in Spokane.
“It’s a great future for him and we saw this in Portland,” said O’Rourke. “But now he gets a bigger role here on a younger hockey club compared to Portland where you’re behind Cody Glass, (Skyler) McKenzie and (Kieffer) Bellows and (Joachim) Blichfeld. He got caught in a numbers thing in Portland, all to our benefit.”
Joel Lakusta opened the scoring 2:22 into the game on a Cougar power play and turned in one of his best games of the season. With Cholowski gone, the 19-year-old Lakusta had to take on the role of kickstarting the offence from the Cats’ blueline and he did what was asked of him against the Americans.
“The guys did a great job, I thought Colina and Lakusta were exceptional (Saturday night), those guys really led the way for us,” said O’Rourke. “I know we had a few loose moments, which a young group will have, but for the most part we locked it down from start to finish.”
Vladislav Mikhalchuk scored for the first time since he left the Cougars to play for Belarus in the world junior championship and along with Leppard, O’Rourke said those two responded well after they’d been challenged by the Cougars coaching staff to crank up the intensity level.
Tavin Grant was sharp in the Cougar nets, making 26 saves as the teams finished even in shots at 28 apiece. Defenceman Jake Bean scored his first since coming to the Americans in a trade from the Calgary Hitmen, a powerplay goal which made it a 2-1 game midway through the second period, but Leppard and Mikhalchuk, the game’s third star, followed with even-strength goals before the period ended for a 4-1 Cougars’ lead.
Parker AuCoin, for the Americans, and the Cougars’ Jared Bethune, into an empty net, traded goals in the third period.
Lakusta led the rush which led to Leppard’s goal. O’Rourke said Lakusta was taking mental notes as Cholowski’s defence partner and learned a lot about how to react to different situations on the ice and it’s showing in his play.
“You can’t underestimate the value of a Dennis Cholowski or a Jake Bean, where young guys see how these guys play, and one of the things Dennis does really well is he plays with his head up and in everything he does he sees the options,” said O’Rourke. “Our guys got to see that on a nightly basis and Lakusta got to play with him down the stretch before the trade. You could see his confidence growing because Dennis always kind of had him in good situations and now he’s doing the same sort of thing; he’s seeing the play and making good reads.
“The difficulty of this level is being patient and not rushing guys too much. I think we do a pretty good job of maintaining that positivity for these guys to try to grow.”
The defending WHL-champion Seattle Thunderbirds are in town tonight and Wednesday to play the Cougars at CN Centre. The T-birds (20-16-4-2) currently hold the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference and are five points ahead of the Cougars (17-20-4-3). The Cats, now fourth in the B.C. Division, are 13 points behind Victoria a third-place divisional playoff spot.
“I opened with a super solid double Axel, it’s one of my strongest jumps and it was right there during my performance, and next was my triple Lutz, double toe, which was also pretty nicely done,” said Hampole.
“After that I normally do a triple Sal, double loop but instead a did a double Sal, double loop and by doing that left quite a few points on the table. But I still did that combination with good quality and was rewarded by the judges. All my spins were done with lots of speed. My triple loop is the highlight of my program and that got almost a full grade of execution points and that’s something I’m superproud of in my program.”
Hampole fell trying to land a triple Lutz, a jump he’d been hitting well all week in practice and in the warm-up before the free skate. That knocked two full points off his score but he made a solid recovery, nailing his triple Salchow.
Hampole earned 49.70 points in his short program and 92.42 points in his free skate for a 142.12 total. Matthew Markell of Ontario won gold with 181.41 points, while Corey Cirelli of Ontario (176.66) claimed silver and Zoe DuvalYergeau of Quebec (170.58) took bronze.
Hampole said he saw a lot of familiar faces among the volunteers around the rink at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver, and that helped put him at ease.
“It was nice that I didn’t have to adjust to a different time zone this time,” he said.
To qualify for nationals this year, Hampole placed 12th out of 28 junior men at the Skate Canada Challenge in Montreal.
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Last year at the national championships in Ottawa, competing in the novice men’s class, Hampole finished 14th.
Hampole is getting used to performing on a national stage and says he’s much better equipped to deal with intense scrutiny that comes with the territory in his sport. He’s now in his second year going to afternoon classes at the Engage Sport North sport school, where he and other high-profile high-school-aged athletes are involved in regular weight training/ cardio sessions and get sports-specific instruction from professional sports psychologists, nutritionists and strength and conditioning coaches. For Hampole, who studies his core academic subjects as a Grade 11 student at Duchess Park secondary school, the sport school on the UNBC campus has been a game-changer.
“I’ve improved my overall fitness and strength and especially my mental game when I’m competing, something I struggled with last year,” he said. “This year I’ve learned how to overcome my nerves ad stay focused on the moment. Sometimes I just have to say the words, ‘stay focused’ and in my mind that just helps me a lot.”
Coached by Rory Allen and Andrea Ludditt at the Northern B.C. Centre for Skating, Hampole will be competing against himself this coming weekend as the only skater in the junior men’s category at the Cariboo North Central regional figure skating championships at Kin 1 and 2. Hampole will skate Saturday and Sunday on the same rink where he won the bronze medal as a pre-novice at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
“It’s a smaller event but I’m going to pretend it’s another national event and skate my best,” he said.