You could never accuse Aiden Foster of being subtle with his approach to hockey.
As one of the Prince George Cougars most physical players on any given night there’s a reason opposition defencemen take second or third looks when they head deep into their own territory knowing Foster has them lined up in their radar.
He’s a heavy hitter who comes with a never-back-down reputation, but the 17-year-old winger also has the skill to land on NHL Central Scouting mid-term draft list. NHL scouts knows the package of skills Foster possesses is a rare find and on Friday his relentless work ethic was rewarded when Cougars head coach Mark Lamb put him on the top scoring line with Riley Heidt and Terik Parascak.
It paid off in a crucial goal Friday night at CN Centre that helped sink the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Foster got into position in front of the net and laid down the blade of his stick just as Parascak ripped a slap shot and it was a perfect deflection through the legs of Wheat Kings goalie Carson Bjarnason.
“It felt awesome, I got bumped up (from the third line) with those guys, two unreal players and I had the easiest job,” said Foster. “Heidter made a great pass to Parascak and all I had to do is put my stick on the ice and it ended up going in.
“It feels good, my teammates make it easy on me.”
Foster’s goal tied the game at 5:44 near the end of a four-goal third-period flurry in which the Cays outscored the Wheaties 3-1.
Backed by a boisterous crowd of 4,950, the Cougars kept it going and got the gamewinner they were looking for with Wheat Kings forward Nolan Flamand serving a penalty for shooting the puck over the glass with about 12 minutes left.
Viliam Kmec picked off a clearing attempt to set up a 3-on-2 situation in the Brandon end that might have been offside but the play was allowed to continue. Kmec got the puck to Heidt, who shoveled it ahead to Koehn Ziemer and the Los Angeles Kings draft pick’s toe-drag through the crease found the net behind Carson Bjarnason to cinch a 3-2 victory.
“It was one of those games, the energy is down, being away a lot and the team’s under the weather and it looked like that to me behind the bench,” said Lamb. “But we’ve got a lot of character and lot of will on this team and we found a way to win.”
That ended a four-game losing streak for the Cougars (25-14-3-2) and they moved to within two points of the Victoria Royals for first place in the WHL’s BC Division. The Wheat Kings (22-16-3-2) wrapped up their extended seven-game roadtrip with a 3-4 record.
The six-foot-two, 174-pound Foster is well known for finishing his checks and has proved his durability as a banger and crasher, missing just two games in his rookie season and playing in all 44 so far this season.
“I always try to do that, get the guys going, lots of people don’t do it anymore so I try to add it to my game,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a learning curve with that and just trying to stay out of the box.”
Lamb also has confidence in Foster's defensive abilities and put him out there in the final minute while the Cougars were protecting their lead.
Ranked 134th among North American skaters available for the NHL draft in June, Foster admits he was inspired by watching game film of his dad Aaron, who played four seasons in the WHL for the Cougars from 1999-2003.
“He’s always told me to play hard and it’ll get you places,” said Foster. “He did a bit of everything too, he’s a lot bigger than me, so I’ve always tried to play like him.”
Trailing 1-0 early in the third period, the Cougars finally earned themselves a break, connecting on their fifth power play of the night just past the two-minute mark of the period.
Kmec chipped the puck back to Ben Riche just inside the Brandon zone and Riche lifted a high one into the net to make it a 1-1 game.
But just 45 seconds later, Carter Klippenstein let go a shot from the slot that crossed the goal line into the Cougar goal just as the net was dislodged when Cougar defenceman Alexey Chichkin and Brandon forward Joby Baumiller fell to the ice and slid. The officials waived it off at first but after viewing the video they awarded Klippenstein the goal, at 4:08 of the third.
But the Cougars didn’t get mad, they got even, and Foster got to celebrate his sixth goal of the season.
Guilty of taking too many penalties on their most recent road trip to Spokane and Everett and a momentary lapse of discipline cost the Cougars on the opening goal of the game 12:46 into the second period.
Matteo Danis was deep in the Brandon end at the tail end of a Cougars power play when he took a hack at the feet of goalie Bjarnason and with Danis serving his sentence Jacobson shovelled in a rebound, following up on a slot shot from Matteo Michels.
The goal came seconds after Heidt had a labelled backhander stopped by Bjarnason. The Philadelphia Flyers second-rounder in 2023 was the third goalie for Team Canada at this year’s world junior championship.
The Cougars were lucky to get out of the first period with the game still scoreless. Ravensbergen was the busier of the two goalies after his team was outshot 13-5 and a few of those rubber bullets came dangerously close to finding the mesh.
Brandon has the league’s top penalty-killing stats (82.5 per cent) and it showed on a four-minute power play the Cougars had 14 minutes into the game when Luke Shipley got caught high sticking Foster. They held the Cats to one high-quality chance from Arseni Anisimov that was denied by a leg-splitting save from Bjarnason.
The Wheat Kings came close to scoring shorthanded not long after that when Carson Carels coughed up the puck at the Cats blueline, allowing Flamand to get to the left face-off dot and launch a hard wrister that dented the goalpost.
Brandon’s speedy forwards continued to give the Cougars trouble and Michels won a footrace with Riche and forced Ravensbergen to block the shot with shoulder just 10 second before the intermission.
Ravensbergen stopped 29 of 31 shots and was picked the game’s second star. He was obviously was inspired by what shaped up to be a battle between two of the WHL’s top goaltenders.
“It was a really good win for our guys, we had a great third period and found a way to score a lot of goals and win this game,” said Ravensbergen, who now has 21 wins this season. “It was a struggle, losing four in a row and this was really big for our team, we needed to win that.
“I always love it when we’re playing another great goalie. You want to beat him, you want to show that you think you’re better. It’s always a lot of fun when you play a big-name goalie like he is and he’s really good”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Indigenous Weekend celebration continues Saturday return to CN Centre to face the Blazers (6 p.m.)… Cougars rookie D Leith Hunter earned another vote of confidence when Lamb put him out there in the final minute with Bjarnason on the bench and he got the job done, holding off determined push from the visitors to try to tie it… Cougars D Corbin Vaughan served the third of a four-game suspension for a cross-checking major in a game against the Blazers Jan. 11 in Kamloops… The 18-year-old Klippenstein is the nephew of Wade Klippenstein, the former Cougars head coach and assistant general manager/director of player personnel. Wade joined the Cats as an assistant coach in 2007 and was with the team until 2013. The younger Klippenstein was listed 121st in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings… Brandon winger Marcus Nguyen became the first Wheat Kings ever to commit to an NCAA scholarship. The 20-year-old former Portland Winterhawk, who leads the team with 22 goals, has committed to the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
