After a nailbiting, record-setting finish in Spokane, the Prince George Cougars now know they will be hosting their first two games of the WHL playoffs.
The Cougars (44-21-3-2) hung on Saturday night to defeat the Spokane Chiefs 4-3 in a game which went right down to the final shot. With that win, their 44th of the season, they set a new Prince George franchise record for most wins in a season.
Josh Anderson fired a low wristshot for what turned out the game-winning goal as the Cougars withstood a determined comeback attempt.
First-period goals by Josh Curtis, Jared Bethune, and Nikita Popogaev staked the Cougars to a 3-0 lead and Anderson's goal, 11 minutes into the third period, made it a 4-1 count. But the Cougars ran into penalty trouble, taking five straight minors, and the Chiefs scored on two of their third period power-play chances to make it a one-goal game with 1:13 to play.
Jarret Anderson-Dolan got Spokane started with the Cougars on the penalty-kill, 57 seconds into the final period, and Kailer Yamamoto converted on another power-play at the 13:39 mark. The Chiefs got goalie Jayden Sittler to the bench for the extra skater and Hudson Elyniuk made it a 4-3 game. Then, with 42 seconds left, Cougars winger Colby McAuley was caught tripping and with six Chiefs in the offensive zone in the dying seconds, Keanu Yamamoto had two labeled shots from close range blocked by Cats' goalie Nick McBride just before the horn sounded.
McBride made 27 saves to improve his record to 14-5-1. The 19-year-old from Maple Ridge has won eight of his last nine starts. The Cougars outshot the youthful Chiefs 40-30.
"It was just an alright game, I don't think we managed the puck real well and if we did we would have smothered these guys, but we kind of just left them hanging around," said Cougars associate coach Steve O'Rourke.
"We got our lead and kind of just left it at that and just didn't really continue to push. Their back end is pretty young and other than their top two lines it's pretty sparse after that and we just let them hang around. They made a great push in the third, that early goal just got them rolling and thank goodness we got that fourth one."
Bethune finished with a goal and an assist. Former Chief Tanner Wishnowski assisted on Curtis's goal and finished the game with a plus-2 rating. Wishnowski also drew an assist in the Cougars' 6-1 win Friday over the Tri-City Americans, but was held without a point in the Cats' 5-4 loss Wednesday in Portland, which started their U.S. Division roadtrip.
Popugaev's goal, his 29th of the season, came on the power play. The Cougars went 1-for-2 with the man advantage and have scored 11 goals in their last 24 power-play chances. The Chiefs ended up 2-for-6 on the power play.
"Again, we took some penalties that probably weren't very good-disciplined penalties - some stick infractions and nothing close to our net, and Spokane has a great power play," said O'Rourke.
The Cougars, who can finish no worse than second in the B.C. Division, will start the playoffs on Friday, March 24. The Cats have two games left, Friday in Kamloops and Saturday against the Blazers at CN Centre.
Prince George remains two points ahead of the second-place Kelowna Rockets, who defeated the Victoria Royals 4-3 in overtime in Kelowna on Saturday. The Rockets host the Everett Silvertips on Wednesday and the Vancouver Giants on Friday, then travel to Langley to wrap up the regular season Saturday against the Giants.
"It was nice to get the franchise record but the big goal is to get the B.C. banner and it's going to be challenging," said O'Rourke. "Kelowna is playing very well and Kamloops is a very good hockey club, a team we could potentially face in the first round, and it's not going to be gimme games up there. Both clubs are going to be trying to establish who will be dominant in that potential series."
LOOSE PUCKS: If the Cougars and Rockets end up tied with the same number of points, the team with the most wins would finish first. If both teams have the same number of wins, the next determining factor would be the team which has the most points in regular-season games played between the two teams. Prince George and Kelowna each have four regulation wins against each other for a total of eight points. The next tiebreaker is the ratio of goals-for subtracted by the number of goals-against, totaled over the 72 game season. With three games left, the Rockets have scored 70 more goals than they have allowed, while the Cougars have scored 51 more than they have allowed.
