Goalie Grant rises to challenge for Cougars
Three unanswered goals from the Prince George Cougars drained the wind out of the sails of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
A day after they stole the Cougars’ thunder in a 6-2 Western Hockey League win at CN Centre, the Hurricanes fell flat in the rematch Saturday, losing 4-2.
The new crop of Cougars provided the energy boost needed to stop a three-game slide and the Cats’ veterans also did their part, cranking up the intensity to carve out a much-needed victory in front of a crowd of 2,704.
Seventeen-year-old rookie centre Max Kryski got to the net just in time to bat in a perfect centring feed from freshman defenceman Jack Sander for the game-winner, 10:38 into the third period, and 16 seconds later Josh Curtis hooked up with Aaron Boyd for a shot from the slot to cement the ‘W’ and end a four-game homestand.
Kryski’s goal was key, but it was goalie Tavin Grant who gave the Cougars the confidence they needed to focus on getting the job done at the opposite end of the ice. Challenged by the Cougars coaching staff in a meeting the day before, the 19-year-old Grant responded with one of his best efforts of the season, making 28 saves to even his record at 12-12-3-1.
“We talked to Tavin (Friday) at length and told him he’s going to have to grab this by the reins and he took it upon himself and agreed with that and the way he performed tonight, the strength of his mind was really good tonight,” said Cougars coach Richard Matvichuk.
“He made the saves when he had to and that’s all we ask of our goaltenders, just give us a chance to win. We don’t expect you to make the huge saves all the time but the easy, simple ones have to be stopped and that’s exactly what happened.”
Six deadline trades in Janu- ary left the Cougars with one of the youngest lineups in the WHL. Two of those youngsters, defenceman Austin Crossley, 18, and 16-year-old left winger Kjell Kjemhus, hooked up on a 2-on-1 chance for the only goal of the second period. Kjemhus took a pass from Vladislav Mikhalchuk and sped up the right side as Crossley went to the net. Crossley gained the puck and fanned on the shot but it had enough steam to slide in past Logan Flodell.
It was Crossley’s first goal since joining the Cougars in a trade from Prince Albert.
—
— He hadn’t scored since Feb. 18, 2017, when he notched the first of his WHL career in a game in Brandon.
“I saw my chance to jump in for the 2-on-1 and Kjell made a nice cross-ice saucer pass right on my tape and I might have wanted it to go in a little cleaner but it went in and that’s all that matters,” said Crossley, traded to the Cougars Jan. 6 along with defenceman Rhett Rhinehart and a first-round bantam draft pick in 2018 for winger Kody McDonald and a conditional third-round pick in 2018.
“Grant made quite a few big saves for us and the boys were chipping pucks down low and finishing their checks and finishing their chances.”
Former Cougar Brad Morrison continued to generate points playing for his third WHL team in a five-season career. The teams were tied 1-1 when Morrison gained the zone and went deep with the puck, flicking a low shot-pass at the net and Jake Elmer was standing in front to redirect it past Grant. Morrison drew his seventh assist and 12th point in his seventh game for the Hurricanes since he arrived in a trade Jan. 9 from the Vancouver Giants. That came 37 seconds after Keltie Jeri-Leon beat Grant with a backhander that went in high off the goalie’s shoulder.
Twenty-year-old Jared Bethune opened the scoring with a hard slapper on a Cougar power play 3:27 into the game.
Even with the win, the Cougars (18-23-4-3) still trail Spokane by eight points for the second wildcard playoff spot. The Hurricanes (22-20-4-0) have been hot lately, winners of five of their last six games.
“I think we came out pretty flat, it was a lacklustre effort for us,” said Hurricanes defenceman Tate Olson, 20, traded by the Cougars to Lethbridge at the start of the season. “There wasn’t much emotion in the game and we didn’t have enough energy tonight, that was the bottom line. Grant looked pretty good tonight.”
Injuries in Friday’s game left the Hurricanes without two of their top scorers, Taylor Ross and Dylan Cozens, the leading rookie scorer in the WHL with 16 goals and 39 points, but Lethbridge coach Brent Kisio said that was no excuse for his team’s sub-par performance Saturday.
“The Cougars played hard, their guys were finishing hits and playing the right way and our guys weren’t, we were kind of just out there figure skating,” said Kisio. “We didn’t execute on the power play and it was the same thing Friday, we’ve got to clean up some things there.”
Coming off a 5-2 loss Tuesday to Seattle, in which he allowed four goals on 35 shots, Grant survived a couple close calls early on and was sharp throughout. He took
Morrison drew his seventh assist and 12th point in his seventh game for the Hurricanes since he arrived in a trade Jan. 9 from the Vancouver Giants.
away another point from Morrison when he made a goalmouth pass to linemate Zane Franklin with about five minutes left in the second period, sliding across the crease to get his toe on Franklin’s tap-in attempt to keep the game tied at two. The Cougars outshot the ’Canes 32-30 but the 19-yearold Grant had more difficult saves to make than Flodell, his 20-yearold counterpart in the Lethbridge crease.
“We built off that,” said Boyd. “Tavin played a really good game tonight and a lot of guys like Crossley scoring his first goal – we fed off those things and we played harder because of it. With the ending of last night’s game we came in with a better mindset and wanted to work harder and win this game for sure.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars had to scratch their leading goal scorer, Josh Maser, when he became ill before the game. In 13 games since the Christmas break the 18-year-old from Houston collected eight goals and eight assists. He leads the Cougars with 21 goals…. Kjemhus started out wearing No. 26 but was forced to put that jersey in the wash and wear No. 17 when Olson gave him a bloody nose with his glove in a third-period scrum… Keegan Craik made his WHL debut Saturday playing the left side on an all-rookie line with centre Chance Adrian and right wing Matt Mosher. Craik, the Cougars’ fifth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft, a six-foot-one, 168-pound native of Richmond, has 13 goals and 26 points in 21 games for Delta Hockey Academy prep team in the Canadian Sport Schools Hockey League… The Cougars leave Wednesday afternoon for their sixgame, nine-day tour of the Eastern Division which starts Friday night in Prince Albert.