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Cougars goalie named to national team

Taylor Gauthier, the 19-year-old goaltender of the Prince George Cougars, will play for Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships.
Gauthier and Cougars shut-out Hurricanes - IN PHOTOS_10
Prince George Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier raises his arms in celebration at CN Centre after he made 37 saves to shut out the Lethbridge Hurricanes in March.

Taylor Gauthier, the 19-year-old goaltender of the Prince George Cougars, will play for Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships.

The prestigious tournament, featuring the best under-20 male hockey players in the world, is set to run from Christmas Day to Jan. 5 in Edmonton.

Gauthier joins six of the most famous names in Prince George Cougars history to play for Canada at the World Juniors. Along with Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer, who went on to long National Hockey League careers and are currently co-owners of the Cougars, Blair Betts, Tyler Bouck, Dana Tyrell and, most recently, Brett Connolly preceded Gauthier as Cougars picked for the national squad.

Gauthier, a native of Calgary, joins Dylan Garland, an 18-year-old from Victoria who plays for the Kamloops Blazers, and Devon Levi from Quebec who currently plays for Northeastern University in Boston. 

“Those are the three guys we’re most comfy with,” Team Canada head coach Andre Tourigny said. “They all bring something a little bit different in their style. Gauthier has a lot of athleticism. He’s a big goalie as well. Garand has really, really good hands. He’s really quick. He did a really good job and same thing for Levi.”

All three goalies played Thursday night in Red Deer in the last of four intrasquad games.

Levi recorded a shutout, stopping 36 shots, as Team White beat Team Red 4-0. Garand played the first half of the game for Team Red, stopping 18 of 21 shots, while Gauthier played the second half, allowing one goal on 15 shots.

Gauthier, who was not chosen in the NHL draft in 2019 or 2020, had an outstanding 2019-2020 season in the Western Hockey League for the Cougars. He played the most minutes (2,870), was tied for first in games played (50), was second in shots faced (1,677) and second in saves (1,537). His goals-against average average was 2.93 and his save percentage was .917. He recorded 16 wins, two of them shutouts.

Previously, Gauthier played at the 2019 IIHF World Under 18 Hockey Championship, the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and the 2017 World Under 17 Hockey Challenge, winning gold at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup event.

Team Canada’s goaltender coach is also a well-known Prince George hockey figure. Jason LaBarbera, 40, played his minor hockey in Prince George before a junior career with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. LaBarbera played 187 NHL games for six teams over 16 seasons before retiring in 2015.

The selection camp for Team Canada was paused for two weeks after two players tested positive for COVID-19. Players returned to the ice Tuesday after quarantining for 14 days.

Team Canada is scheduled to enter the Edmonton bubble, modelled after the NHL’s 2020 playoff bubble, on Sunday, along with the other nine participating countries.

- with files from the Canadian Press