Sam Ruopp is convinced the Prince George Cougars are better than their record the past five weeks would indicate.
Since the new year dawned on Cougarville, a firing-on-all-cylinders Cats team which climbed up to honourable mention status in the Canadian Hockey League's mid-December rankings has slumped into mediocrity.
Through January and the first week of February, the Cougars put up an unspectacular 8-9-1-0 record and have fallen off the pace of the division-leading Kelowna Rockets (the Cougars' opponents tonight and Saturday at CN Centre) and the white-hot Victoria Royals (winners of 10 straight games).
The Cougars (31-21-2-1, fourth in the Western Conference) lost four of six games on their 12-day tour of the Western Hockey League's East Division which ended last weekend and are on a three-game losing streak, their longest of the season. But Ruopp, the Cougars 19-year-old captain, says there's no need to push the panic button.
"It was quite the road trip, it's always hard playing that many games in that many days and we got away from some things and were cheating the game," said Ruopp. "We know we can beat any team in the league if we're not cheating the game. Maybe it was because of all the games we had but we were on the wrong side of pucks, not doing the simple things like getting pucks behind their D and taking the easy way out instead of going hard into the corners. It was never (that) our work ethic wasn't there and we learned from our mistakes."
For whatever reason, the Cougars took too many penalties, a problem that's haunted the WHL's most-penalized team since the start of the season. In the six games in Saskatchewan and Manitoba the Cougars averaged six shorthanded situations per game and allowed seven power-play goals on 36 opportunities handed to their opponents. In a 5-3 loss in Regina on Saturday, both Pats power-play goals came on two-man advantages. In an 8-3 loss Friday in Brandon, the Wheat Kings scored two power-play goals in the first period to build a 4-0 advantage.
"To me it's not so much undisciplined penalties, it's (untimely) penalties, 5-on-3s, wrong defensive-side positioning so you have to make up for it with your stick, and all of a sudden it translates into a hooking call," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We're our own worst enemies in that regard. It's decisions with our stick and habits and details that we were so good on prior to Christmas that we've got a little sloppy on.
"We've had three pretty good days of practice and we've worked on those details on defending in our zone and structure and communication and basically went back to Hockey 101, so we can compete with these upper-echelon teams. I liked our effort (on the road) but we have to do a better job of staying out of the penalty box. You're not going to take six or seven minors a night against Kelowna and expect to win."
The Rockets (37-15-5-3, first in the Western Conference) and Royals are tied for first in the division, each with 77 points. Kelowna has played one fewer game. The Rockets have won three and the Cougars have won two in the five-game season series so far. They last played each other Jan. 19 in Kelowna, a 7-4 Rockets' victory.
"We know Kelowna pretty good - they're a good team and they're fast and we've adjusted to their style of play in practice here, so we should be ready," said Ruopp. "We're going to be a more disciplined, more structured team. You're still going to see our team working hard and a hard-paced game."
Ty Edmonds was the CHL's goaltender of the week in early December and was among the WHL leaders in virtually every department at the end of 2015, but his play has tailed off noticeably since then. Edmonds earned his third shutout of the season in Saskatoon but drew criticism from his coach for a long shot that beat him for the overtime winner in Swift Current and he was in net for seven of the eight goals Brandon scored. Nick McBride returned from a lower-body ailment and played three of the six games on the road.
"We're not pleased, obviously. Our goaltending certainly was a huge part in our success early," said Holick. "It all starts in the net and if you know you can make a mistake and you have the big fellow in net making the stop for you, you can play the game a bit differently. Right now we're on our heels a bit and we're a bit nervous in our own zone. It seemed like every mistake we made in Brandon ended up in our net early and those types of things happen when your goaltender is struggling."
Holick said McBride will get the start in net tonight.
The Rockets are led offensively by Tyson Baillie, who ranks fourth in the WHL scoring race with 75 points and a team-leading 31 goals. The Cougars have two snipers in the 30-goal club. Jesse Gabrielle has 34 goals in 55 games, second only to Dryden Hunt of Moose Jaw, who has 38, while Gabrielle's linemate Chase Witala has 33 goals. Gabrielle's 63 points leads all Cougars and he ranks 11th in the WHL. Witala became the all-time career Cougar goalscorer last week and also has 60 points, 16th-best in the league.
Cougars D Max Martin,16, has been cleared for contact, having missed all but the first game of the season with a shoulder injury. D Josh Anderson remains sidelined with a back injury. The Rockets, who lost 6-0 Wednesday in Seattle, were without D Joe Gatenby (lower body, day-to-day), F Nick Merkley (lower body, day-to-day), G Jackson Whistle (lower body, week-to-week) and F Tanner Wishnowski (lower body, day-to-day).
