Oren Shtrom used to be a popular guy in Prince George.
Well-liked by his Cougars teammates and a fan favourite when he was one of the catalysts on a powerful team on an extended playoff run that almost took them to the WHL final, it didn’t take long for Shtrom to destroy all that goodwill he created for himself whenever he showed up for work at CN Centre.
Now playing for the Kamloops Blazers, he came back to haunt his former teammates Saturday night with two goals and an assist in a 5-2 victory over the Cougars.
“It was a good game, I think we’re in a spot now where we’re looking to get into a playoff spot and it was good I was able to help the team and get two points closer to a playoff spot,” said Shtrom.
A four-goal second period put the Blazers into the driver’s seat on their way to a big win over their traditional WHL rivals. Shtrom’s first of the night to make it a 3-1 game was the insurance goal.
“I just saw Villy (Kmec) there was flat-footed so I just cut him off and skated down and had some space and saw short side was open and ripped it there,” said Shtrom.
“It was a great crowd, it’s loud, and it’s different now that we’re hearing boos. It was fun to play in.”
The Cougars got the fans into it early when they came out firing, scoring on the first shot of the game. Defenceman Leith Hunter spotted Koehn Ziemmer 100 feet away just over the centre line on the right wing and fired the puck off the glass right on to Ziemmer’s stick. He finished off the breakaway with a backhand shift to his forehand and fired it in upstairs.
That was Ziemmer’s 117th career goal in 4 ½ seasons with the Cougars and he’s now just four away from eclipsing Chase Witala’s record of 120.
The Cats continued to pound the Kamloops net defended by Dylan Ernst and had nine shots on the board before the Blazers got their first, nearly eight minutes into the game.
The Blazers found their skating legs in the latter stages of the period and almost evened up the shots before the intermission and that set the stage for their four-goal explosion.
The Cougars went on a power play 30 seconds into the second period when Harrison Brunicke got sent off for roughing, but it was the Blazers doing the damage. Emmitt Finnie did most of the work to start the penalty kill and he got a shot away that Josh Ravensbergen stopped but Beau Courtney got to the rebound and buried it, just 16 seconds into the power play and 46 seconds into the period.
The Blazers grabbed the lead at the 3:16 mark when Nathan Behm poked in a loose puck that dropped into the crease behind Ravensbergen after he made the initial stop on Max Sullivan and Shtrom followed up not long after.
Three goals on 14 shots before the game was half old convinced Cougars head coach Mark Lamb to swap goalies, bringing Cooper Michaluk in to replace Ravensbergen.
But the Kamloops onslaught continued. The Cougars took back-to-back penalties a minute apart and got burned. Behm spotted Tommy Lafreniere standing just off the post and delivered a shot-pass right onto the blade of Lafreniere’s stick for an easy tap-in goal, the 19th this season for the 17-year-old rookie winger from Hornby Island.
The Cougars finally gave their fans in the crowd of 6,016 another reason to cheer late in the period, turning yet another penalty kill into something positive. Bauer Dumanski got his body in the way for a shot block in the Cougar end and limped off to the bench while the Blazers were forced to retreat into their own zone to retrieve the puck and Borya Valis was ready for them.
The 20-year-old Cougars winger stripped the puck away from defenceman Matteo Koci and was home free, finishing with a deke on Ernst for his 22nd goal.
But from that point on the Blazers locked it down. Shtrom put it out of reach five minutes into the third on a Kamloops power play. He had all kinds of time to take the shot from the left circle that got through a screen supplied by John Szabo parked in front of Michaluk.
“I think the shorthanded goal in the second period was a big energy boost for us,” said Blazers associate coach Don Hay. “Prince George is a dangerous team, they’re an offensive team and if you make mistakes they’re going to expose you. I thought the third period was pretty tight, we didn’t give them a lot and we were able to kill the penalty and that was important.”
The Cougars outshot the Blazers 32-23.
Shtrom, a native of Gilbert, Ariz., now has 29 points in 44 games and has already exceeded his 27-point total from the 66 regular season games he played in 2023-24 for the Cougars since coming over in a trade from Medicine Hat. Heading into his final junior season, the 20-year-old got caught in the overager numbers game and the Cougars decided to trade him to Kamloops May 30, 2024.
“That was probably the best game he’s played as a Blazer,” said Hay. “He was probably due for it. He’s a real solid competitive player who can play in all situations for us. He scored on the power play he can kill penalties, he scored, he’s kind of the Swiss army knife. He fills in different roles and different lines and he’s a good addition for us.”
It was a good weekend for the Blazers (17-24-3-0) in their bid to get into a playoff position. They’re now just one point behind the eighth place Wenatchee Wild and the Blazers moved one point ahead of the Kelowna Rockets, who lost 6-4 to Vancouver on Saturday.
Friday night in Kamloops, the Blazers scored three goals in 33 seconds late in the third period to erase a 2-0 deficit and went to beat Kelowna 4-3 when Finnie scored in overtime.
It was only the third regulation home loss this season for the Cougars (25-15-3-2). They’ve now lost five of their last six, starting with a 6-3 defeat in Kamloops Jan. 11. They’re two points behind the BC Division-leading Victoria Royals.
Cougars associate coach Jim Playfair liked his team’s first period but they tailed off drastically from that point and he says there’s much work to be done to fix what’s currently ailing his team.
“We had a really good start to the game, we did a lot of good things but we got away from it in the second and third period, some individual mistakes that led to great scoring opportunities,” said Playfair. “The biggest difference is we have to become a team that’s more committed to the fundamentals of how we have to play and just build consistency in that and that will give us our confidence and we can get going again.
“I don’t know if whether it’s an immature team right now or a lack of leadership but we have to be able to sustain those types of periods and we’re not doing that, so it’s on us to get to the bottom of it and get after it and make sure we’re ready for the next game.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Swift Current Broncos will be in town Tuesday (7 p.m.) to face the Cougars, now two games into a six-game homestand…. Cougars rookie F Caden Lemire drew a thunderous ovation from the big pro-Cougar crowd late in the first period when he dropped the gloves with Blazers D Sam Borschowa in a spirited scrap. Lemire skated off the ice with arms raised in triumph after scoring a one-sided decision…. Hay, who has been coaching in the league off and on since 1985, was glad to see the CN Centre stands full on Indigenous Weekend and it reminded him of the early days of the Prince George franchise back in the mid- to late ‘90s. “I loved the crowd, it was a great crowd and it’s nice to see Prince George getting that energy and enthusiasm back,” said Hay. “They had a great team last year and got to the conference finals and they’re ultra-competitive this year, so it’s great to see the fans come out an make it a fun building to take part in.”
