Dylan Cozens won’t forget his first shift of major midget hockey.

The 14-year-old Whitehorse native picked up an assist in his first shift as a member of the Prince George Cariboo Cougars Saturday.

“It was my first shift of the game,” recalled the six-foot, 150-pound forward. “I went out and created a turnover. That put us on a two-on-one, and I passed it over to my teammate (captain Riley Coishe), who scored.”

Saturday’s B.C. Major Midget Hockey League contest between the Cougars (15-6-3) and the North Island Silvertips (2-19-3) was a chippy one, and Cozens didn’t see much time on the powerplay and penalty kill.

But he ensured the game would be memorable on his last shift of the game, when he buried his first major midget goal, slipping a shot through the five-hole on a breakaway, to make the final 8-2.

“I didn’t expect to score (in my first game), but I really wanted to,” said Cozens. “I was pretty happy it went in.”

The Yukoner went pointless in his second game with the Cougars Sunday in a much tighter 3-1 win.

Major midget hockey is played by the province’s best 15- to 17-year-old players.

To date, Cozens has 12 goals and eight assists in 15 games with Delta Hockey Academy’s Bantam Prep team this season.

Cozens said the experience helped show him what he needs to do to play major midget next season – including getting stronger.

“He fit in good,” said Cougars general manager and co-head coach Trevor Sprague. “Dylan had great speed. He’s very smart with the puck and how he plays the game 200 feet.”

Cozens wasn’t the first Whitehorse product to suit up with the Cougars this season.

Yukon Mustangs U16 Minor Midget centre Bryce Anderson, also 14, spent two weeks in Prince George in early November, where he appeared in games against the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds and Vancouver NW Giants – two of the league’s top teams.

Anderson’s stint was cut short when he was assessed a match penalty for boarding in his third game, coupled with a one-game suspension.

Both players will have an opportunity to crack the Cougars roster next season, said Sprague.

“We’re hosting the Telus Cup next year – the national championship for our age group,” he said. “So those two guys have to come in here and beat out guys that are 16, 17 years old, because no doubt, we’re going to be an older team.

“I like both kids. Defensively, they’re really, really good. Whatever the coaches are doing up there (in Whitehorse), they’re doing a great job on that.”

In other out-of-town hockey action last weekend, 15-year-old Yukoner Joe Stokes joined the Burnaby Winter Club’s Elite U18 team in Calgary to play in the World Sport School Challenge final.

However, Stokes – typically a forward with the Elite 15 team – and his teammates lost 4-2 to the Delta Hockey Academy Wild.

Stokes was a teammate of Anderson and Cozens with the Whitehorse Bantam Mustangs last season. He has seven goals and 11 assists in 32 games this year.

Meanwhile, in Kootenay International Junior Hockey League action yesterday, former Cariboo Cougar Riley Pettitt saw his point streak end in a 4-0 loss to the Princeton Posse.

The Jr. B forward from Whitehorse had been riding a 17-game point streak with the Summerland Steam, in which he scored 22 points.