School was in session for a handful of rookie defenseman on the Prince George Cougars – and at the end of the lesson they passed with flying colours.
PG’s patchwork blueliner, which featured extended auditions for Leith Hunter, Dermot Johnston, Areseni Anisimov as well as affiliate player Ryan Richter – the Cougars put up their best defensive effort of the season enroute to a 4-1 victory on Tuesday over the Moose Jaw Warriors in front of 2,895 fans at CN Centre.
Going into the early-week tilt, the Cougars needed to fill the void left by Ephram McNutt due to injury as well as the brief departure of standout rookie Carson Carels who is representing Canada at the Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Despite being a little wet behind the ears, all four rookies held their own in the opening 20 minutes giving up only 11 shots.
“The one thing we wanted to do was mark Yager’s line. We wanted to make sure we had Kmec (Viliam) and Dumanski (Bauer) out there as much as possible but I also think we put the kids in situations where they did a good job. We tried to give them some o-zone faceoffs to start the play and get them comfortable.”
“The other thing we did was we stayed out of the box for most of the night. We only had two minor penalties and that gives your team a chance to get more guys involved and in the first period Rav(ensbergen) saved our game in the first period because of the amount of odd-man rushes and breakaways we gave up. The kids got their footing but as the game went along the older guys and our veterans did a really good job working with those young kids back their,” said Jim Playfair, Cougars associate coach.
Lajoie's 8th of the season, and Ziemmer's second point of the night!#NHLDraft | @LAKings | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/CMQ05g9Txk pic.twitter.com/xEJNx4eKHO
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 30, 2024
Hunter, Johnston, Richter and Anisimov have a combined 27 games of WHL experience under the belt and while none of them will be minoring or majoring in any academic field at this point in their junior hockey journey – the increased will more than likely allow them to graduate to a much more expanded role with the Cougars in future seasons.
For a coach as seasoned as Playfair who has spent many years in the NHL and minor-league levels, he admits there will be a lot more teaching moments this season than in years past.
“There is a lot of detailed coaching, but the other thing is you don’t want to over coach them. You have to go let them play to their strengths. I like to let the kids play 10 games at the start of the season and then we start to pick away at scenarios of improvement and let them have the experience of some success and failure. We are trying to challenge them, push them and we think they can handle a push but also let them go out there and find that pace of game.”
“I think if you get on them too early and show them too much video and start talking to them too much then they get frozen up a bit and don’t find their natural flow. You gotta let them play and address issues as they arise – when you see consistency good or bad that is when you can sit them down.”
With the Cougars still in their win-now cycle, Playfair touched on the balance of meeting those expectations as well as the outside noise from pundits and fans of landing a star 19-year-old defense while also not comprising the development of the current crop of blueliners.
“When you look at where we are today compared to a year ago our record is not bang on but its not very far off either. We have some young players and we have some injuries – I think when we find the balance of stabilizing our game to make sure our players are playing consistent and then we can evaluate it.”
“If we are struggling and not maximizing our structure you can’t give an honest opinion of these kids – as our game becomes more consistent and mature you can see where these kids are. If we have to go out and get a veteran defenceman and maybe at some point we will, but until that time comes, we have to maximize what these kids are doing,” said Playfair.
Koehn Ziemmer drew first blood for the Cougars finishing a give-and-go sequence with Terik Parascak to make it 1-0.
Make that 201 career points for Koehn Ziemmer 😼@LAKings | @CarlsJrCA https://t.co/zgaGKP4yPF pic.twitter.com/Sn2E2I4z4V
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 30, 2024
The lone blemish came in period two as a Noah Degenstein shot bounced off the stick blade of PG defenceman Viliam Kmec, changing direction in mid-flight before glancing off the glove of Ravensbergen and into the net.
Despite the hiccup, the Cougars owned the territorial advantage making life a lot easier on the youthful blueline outshooting Moose Jaw 22-5 in the middle period.
In the third, PG’s lethal offensive attack ignited in a span of seven minutes. The new-look line of Jett Lajoie, Evan Groening and Ziemmer lit the spark as it was Lajoie who blasted a shot past the shoulder of Warriors goaltender Jackson Ungar to put the home team back in the driver’s seat.
Parascak followed that up with a lethal slap shot also beating Ungar up high and under the bar. The play began on a breakout feed by Ravensbergen who feathered a pass to Borya Valis – laying the puck on a platter for the Washington Capitals top prospect.
Two Ovi goals, one Parascak goal. Good night to be a @Capitals fan.@CarlsJrCA https://t.co/cwaAXzaduU pic.twitter.com/ewSDo7Si5b
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 30, 2024
Parascak added a shorthanded empty-netter in the final two minutes to ice the victory.
As the final buzzer sounded, the Cougars outshot Moose Jaw 44-21. Both teams failed to score in three combined opportunities on the man-advantage.
Ravensbergen made 20 saves in the victory. Ungar allowed three goals on 43 shots in defeat.
In what was likely the last head-to-head matchup for best friends Brayden Yager (Moose Jaw) and Riley Heidt (Prince George) – both stars were held pointless.
Richter, who is from Smithers, suited up in his first WHL game. Over the summer, the 16-year-old signed with PG after a strong showing in training camp. He recently returned to the U18 Cariboo Cougars after departing the Delta Hockey Academy.
Last season, Richter suited up for the Burnaby Winter Club of the Canadian Sports School Hockey League racking up 25 points in 25 games between their U17 and U18 prep teams.
PG improves to 8-4-2-2 on the season is ahead of the Victoria Royals by two points in the BC Division standings – albeit the Royals have three games in hand.
Moose Jaw drops to 3-10-2-0 and will battle the Royals in Victoria on Friday before wrapping up their West Coast road trip against the Vancouver Giants the following evening (Saturday).
The Cougars head out for a day trip to Kamloops to tackle the Blazers (6-7-1-1) on Friday. Puck drop is at 7:00 pm from Sandman Centre.
PG is back on home ice Tuesday, November 5th against the Saskatoon Blades – kicking off a six-game home stand at CN Centre.
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