It’s a good thing they give hockey players a 20-minute break between periods on game nights.
It seemed like that’s about the only time Prince George Cougars defenceman Viliam Kmec left the ice.
Kmec was the ironman back there, the seasoned veteran who has been through many WHL battles and came out on top again on Tuesday. When the Cougars needed him to shut down the Moose Jaw Warriors, the 20-year-old Slovakian got the job done.
He laid down the building blocks of a 4-1 victory over the defending league champs. Playing well over 35 minutes, with the Cougars missing two of their regulars on the blueline and one just returning from injury, Kmec made the right decisions under fire while drawing all the toughest assignments and it set the tone for the rest of the Cougars.
“I’m amazed at how hard he plays, he’s just full of energy,” said Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb. “He’s playing 35 or 40 minutes of hard hockey and he’s still got energy.
“It’s really good for the team, they really came back low (to defend) and we’ve got to play like that. It’s winning hockey.”
Terik Parascak scored twice in the third period to pave the way to victory Tuesday in front of a CN Centre crowd of 2,895.
Kmec, who stands six-foot-two and weighs 214 points, is stronger and faster on his feet than he was last season. Now with three goals and 11 assists, he ranks fourth in team scoring and is well on pace to eclipse the nine goals and 25 assists he had in 58 games last season. He was held to one assist Tuesday but he’s not focused on his own points, only on what the Cougars gain in the standings.
“It’s great to get a win tonight and it’s good to get this team going, and I hope we will continue with that,” said Kmec.
“We have a lot of young guys and obviously they play, too, but there’s a lot of situations where Jimmy (assistant coach Playfair) just trusts me and puts me out there with their top line. I’m just trying to play my best and it’s good.
“Obviously I’m a year older and trained really hard in the summer and gained a lot more speed and tried to work on the details and do things right defensively and offensively as well.”
The Vegas Golden Knights think Kmec is on the right track and that’s why they signed him in September to a three-year entry-level contract after they invited him to their training camp.
“It’s been a great couple months, it’s been one of the best things that’s happened to me and I’m grateful for it,” said Kmec. “It just keeps my motivation high to practice and to play and to get better each day.”
“It was great to see those guys and how it works there and see the level I want to get. I think I played well there and that’s why they signed me.”
It was a bit of a surprise when the Golden Knights sent him back to junior and that created a logjam of 20-year-olds that forced the Cougars to make the trade that sent overager Carlin Dezainde to Swift Current.
The win moved the Cougars back on top of the WHL BC Division standings as they improved to 8-4-2-2. The Warriors (3-10-2-0) have lost seven straight and remain last in the Eastern Conference.
There wasn’t a lot of special teams play in a game that had just three minor penalties either way, but Kmec excelled at that, never once turning the puck over. Playing 5-on-5, he was a wet blanket that smothered the Warriors’ top-line forwards and none of them had much success getting to the net with the puck when he was out guarding his team’s territory.
“I think that’s why he earned a three-year contract in Vegas,” said Playfair. “He’s a kid that last year when I first saw him I felt he could have NHL-potential details and I talked to (Golden Knights head coach) Bruce Cassidy, a good buddy of mine, and when you get a player like that who has confidence now having a contract, he feels good about himself, good about the game, and that’s three or four games now he’s played big minutes.
“I think he defends real hard, he’s strong on pucks, he’s real comfortable in the game and he recognizes he’s got a real important role with us,” he said. “He’s on the power play, he’s on the penalty kill, he’s an important 5-on-5 player, he’s a shutdown player for us, and these are all experiences that he’s going to have to have when he goes on to pro hockey.
“I’m not concerned about his points, I’m concerned about his plus/minus, his consistency and his habits and I think that’s where he’s done a good job maybe calming his game down a bit and not trying to chase the offence. He’s not going to be a point-producer for the Vegas Golden Knights, he’s going to be a real solid defender who’s going to create points by having good instincts and the points are going to come.”
The young Cougar defence, already missing veteran Ephram McNutt, out with an upper-body injury suffered in Saturday’s game against Victoria, had four rookies in the lineup, including Cariboo Cougars U18 callup Ryan Richter of Smithers.
The Cougars did get 20-year-old Bauer Dumanski back after he was hurt in the game in Calgary Oct. 14 and he missed four games nursing an upper-body ailment. Dumanski provided instant stability on the back end and he and Kmec were the veterans in a lineup that also included first-year WHL defenders Leith Hunter, Dermot Johnston, and Russian import Arseni Anisimov.
“This is really good for the organization,” said Playfair. “We had veterans last year and we had a successful season and now we’ve got young kids and we have to figure out how to have a successful season with the young kids. Because what they will be able to do if they learn the right way and do the right way, we should get three or four years out of these kids doing things right. We see that they can be good players today and grow into great players in the future, so we’ve got to get them playing.”
The Cougars took control in the second period and ended up doubling the Warriors in shots, 44-22.
Koehn Ziemmer kickstarted the Cats’ offence five minutes in, batting in a fat rebound after Terik Parascak let go the initial shot on Jackson Unger.
The Warriors evened the count 7:24 into the second period on a long shot from just inside the blueline. Noah Degenstein gained possession at centre and the puck appeared to tick off the stick of defenceman Leith Hunter as it sailed in past a surprised Joshua Ravensbergen.
The Cougars outshot Moose Jaw 22-5 in the middle period but couldn’t slip one past Unger, one of 17 returning players from the Warriors team that won its first WHL championship five months ago.
But with their opening salvo of the third period and 23rd shot the Cougars got what they were after. Rookie Jett Lajoie ripped a snapper from the high slot and had the velocity to find a seam in under the glove of Unger.
Parascak made it a 3-1 count a few minutes later, set up by linemate Borya Valis on a one-timer from just outside the crease. Ravensbergen, playing in his sophomore draft season, drew the second assist for the first point of his WHL goaltending career.
Parascak, the top rookie last season in the BC Division, ended the suspense with two minutes left, scoring into the empty Moose Jaw net while the Cougars were at the tail end of penalty kill. Parascak’s eighth of the season from deep inside the Cougars end, Prince George’s fourth shorthanded goal this season.
LOOSE PUCKS: Cougars D Carson Carels left this week for Sarnia, Ont., and will represent the Cougars playing for Canada Red, Nov. 3-9 at the U17 World Challenge. Canada Red opens Sunday (4:30 p.m. PT) against Finland… Richter had an impressive training camp and the Cougars signed him Sept.5. He started the season at Delta Academy and came back to Prince George after five games with the U18 Prep team… The Cougars hit the road to play the Blazers in Kamloops on Friday, then will play their next six games at CN Centre, starting with a date with the Saskatoon Blades next Tuesday.
