If the Prince George Cougars expect to break out of their slump and be firing on all cylinders come playoff time, there's no better time than tonight to begin that process.
The Cougars, one of the oldest teams in the Western Hockey League, take on the one of the league's youngest, the Edmonton Oil Kings, in the first of a two-game weekend set at CN Centre.
The once high-and-mighty Cougars have lost seven of their last nine games and are desperately trying to fend off the Kamloops Blazers, who have suddenly crept to within a single point of tying the Cougars for first place in the B.C. Division standings.
The Cougars beat the Oil Kings 10-3 and 3-1 when they last met in late January in Edmonton. Wednesday night in Kelowna, the Oil Kings lost 10-1 to the Rockets after getting outshot 53-15.
The Oil Kings (20-36-4-1, 10th in Eastern Conference) dealt their two top scorers - centre Lane Bauer (to Kamloops) and defenceman Aaron Irving (to Everett) at the trade deadline, sending the two 20-year-olds in exchange for younger players and bantam draft picks.
The Cougars (38-19-3-2, third in Western Conference) made midseason moves to acquire forwards Radovan Bondra. Nikita Popugaev and Tanner Wishnowski and defenceman Brendan Guhle, loading up for what they expect to be an extended playoff run. The Cougars now have three 1996-born and 12 1997-born players on their roster.
Guhle (ankle injury) and Wishnowski (concussion) won't play in either game this weekend. The Oil Kings will be missing three defencemen due to injuries - Brayden Gorda (upper body), Wyatt McLeod (upper body) and Riley Stadel (upper body) as well as forward Graham Miller (lower body).
Davis Koch leads Edmonton in scoring with 61 points. Trey Fix-Wolanski is the Oil Kings' leading goalscorer with 20.
Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds, 20, currently tied with Scott Myers for most career wins (95) for a goalie in the Cougars' 23-season Prince George franchise history, will try to set a new standard this weekend.
The Cougars and Blazers each have 10 games left in the regular season. The Blazers host the Rockets tonight in Kamloops.
