If you didn’t get a chance to see Landon DuPont get down to business Friday night playing defence for the Everett Silvertips, don’t fret.
He’ll be back at it again Saturday (6 p.m.) at CN Centre, trying for a weekend sweep over the Prince George Cougars.
At 15-years old, the second player ever to be granted exceptional status to play a full season in the Western Hockey League not only proved he belongs playing against players as much as five years his senior but he’s an absolute standout who is on the fast track to the NHL.
DuPont staked the Silvertips to a 1-0 lead on an Everett power play, one of eight shots the kid from Calgary fired on goal in what turned out a 3-1 victory over the Cougars.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle, these guys are a great team and our team has kind of been struggling recently, but I think we found our game and hopefully we’ll keep it rolling,” said DuPont.
Blessed with blazing speed, DuPont had already created a 2-on 1 chance the Cougars defence neutralized with a stick check when he found a way to cash in on the Silvertips’ first power-play chance. He took the feed from defence partner Tarin Smith and whipped a low wrist shot from the circle into the far side corner behind Josh Ravensbergen.
DuPont’s 13th goal and 51st point in 50 games came 8:28 into the game.
“Tarin made a great play, he slid over to the middle and hit my tape and I got my head up and saw a great screen in front to by Carter (Bear) and just let it fly and lucky it went in,” said DuPont.
“The team has helped me tremendously, we’ve got a good team here and the off-ice staff and the coaches have been awesome with my development and the team’s development. It’s obviously a big jump to the WHL and the first few games you don’t know what to expect and I was a bit nervous, but my team helped me just kind of find my groove and those older guys helped me step in. Every game I’m finding my feet more and I feel comfortable every game now.”
Tyler MacKenzie and Eric Jamieson, into an empty net, also scored for the Silvertips, who improved their WHL-leading record to 38-9-4-3.
Raiden LeGall made 27 saves in goal for Everett as the first star of the game.
Cougars forward Matteo Danis, with his fourth goal in five games, was the only shooter to put a blemish on LeGall’s night. The native of Morden, Man., is 8-1-1 this season since joining the Silvertips from the Niverville Nighthawks of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in November.
Silvertips head coach Steve Hamiton sent DuPont over the boards for every situation -power plays, shorthanded, on key face-offs in the defensive zone, and he had him out there often when the Cats were making their push to tie it late in the game.
Looking like a seasoned veteran, DuPont doesn’t panic under pressure. He moves the puck quickly, passes with authority and as he showed early on, he’s not afraid to lead the rush. He finished with eight shots on goal, leading all skaters.
“Landon is obviously mature beyond his years,” said Hamilton. “You would never suspect that he was 15, just in the way he handles himself and his preparation and what he does to contribute on the ice. Just from Day 1 he’s blended right in. He’s an awesome teammate and the guys love him and he’s obviously got an incredibly bright future in the game. Nothing the league has thrown at him this year has been more than he can handle and that’s what makes him an exceptional status player. He’s been thriving right from Day 1.”
The Cougars (30-16-4-2) fell six points behind the Victoria Royals for first place in the BC Division. The Royals were 5-2 winners on home ice Friday over the Vancouver Giants. Friday's loss ended the Cats’ six-game point streak and it was only the fourth time this season the Cats have lost in regulation time on home ice.
Special teams were the deciding factor in this one. The Silvertips went 1-for 3 on the power play while the Cougars were 0-for-5.
The Silvertips are the stingiest team in the WHL. Through 54 games they’ve allowed just 144 goals, a 2.66 average, and they didn’t give the Cougars much time or space.
After DuPont scored, the Cougars got back on even terms with four minutes left in the first. Koehn Ziemmer kept his feet moving and stole the puck from MacKenzie and flipped it to pointman Carson Carels, whose shot was tipped in by Danis for his 10th goal and 18th point. That extended the point streak to five games for Danis, who has four goals in that span.
“I thought it was a good battle and it did come down to special teams,” said Danis. “We got scored on, on the penalty kill and we couldn’t produce a goal on the power play. I thought we played a good 60 (minutes). We were getting shots and getting chances, we just needed that extra bounce. It kind of flipped over our blades a couple times and we just needed that on our stick and it would have been a closer game at the end.”
The teams were playing 4-on-4 near the end of the period when MacKenzie jammed in a rebound after linemate Dominik Rymon drove to the net with the puck and that gave Everett a 2-1 lead to take into the break.
The Cougars had a strong second period but had nothing to show for it. They held the Silvertips to just three shots and peppered LeGall with 10 shots but he stopped them all. That didn’t include the crossbar and post Danis nailed seconds apart midway through the period.
The Silvertips dodged a bullet late in the second period when the they went on a 5-on-3 power play for more than a minute but failed to get a shot on goal.
“They know what they’re doing defensively, they for sure box out and going to the crease is always hard and their goalie played phenomenal today,” said Danis. “He saw a lot of pucks and I think in future we just have to get in front of him, make sure he doesn’t see them and keep shooting for rebounds.”
The Cougars had great pressure late in the game holding the offensive zone on a delayed call that led into a two-minute power play. In a three-minute stretch of offensive zone time they tested goalie LeGall with a couple of tough shots but the Silvertips did their jobs clogging the middle and keeping the puck to the outside and they were quick to prevent rebound chances.
“A big part of our identity is just being difficult to play against and not allowing a lot of time and space,” said Hamilton. “We talk a lot about checking and how important it is to be on your toes and not backing off and taking it to teams and I didn’t think there was a lot of free ice tonight on either side.
“They had some opportunities on the power play and 4-on-3 is a lot of free ice and they’ve got a lot of talent and we dodged a couple bullets off the bar, but you need some good fortune on the road and give our guys credit. We dug in there in a critical situation. We got one early on the power play and then our PK rose to the challenge.”
LOOSE PUCKS: How would the WHL look as a 23-team league? Expansion could be a hot topic for discussion among WHL governors if rumours of the Penticton Vees wanting to jump from the BCHL to the WHL reported Friday morning in the print edition of the Province are true. The Vees are reportedly prepared to offer the Kelowna Rockets a $1 million incentive to give up their territorial rights to allow the Vees in as the sixth team in the BC Division next season. Penticton is 62 kilometres south of Kelowna, well within Kelowna’s 100 km catchment area…. The attendance was 4,158. That included Peter and Zuzanna Kmec, the parents of 20-year-old Cougars D Viliam Kmec, who made the trip all the way from Košice, Slovakia… Cougars defenceman Bauer Dumanski missed Friday’s game with an ankle injury he suffered in the game a week ago in Kelowna. The Cougars were also without D Corbin Vaughan, who still has four more games to serve out a 10-game suspension.
