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Cougars clinch playoff spot

X marks the spot for the Prince George Cougars. A check of the Western Hockey League standings shows the Cougars have earned that x-designation beside their name.
Cougars-Oil Kings action
Cougars centre Jansen Harkins keeps the puck beyond the reach of Edmonton Oil Kings defenceman Connor McDonald during Saturday's game at CN Centre. The Cougars won 5-2.

X marks the spot for the Prince George Cougars.
A check of the Western Hockey League standings shows the Cougars have earned that x-designation beside their name. They made it official they’re in the playoffs with their 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings Saturday in front of a CN Centre crowd of 5,805.
 “Our goal right from the beginning when (general manager) Todd (Harkins) and ownership hired me was to make the playoffs and we accomplished that tonight and now our next goal is to win our division,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk.
“It doesn’t matter what Kamloops does and it doesn’t matter what Kelowna does, it’s what we do. The good thing is we control our own fate here and what we want to do.”
Jesse Gabrielle had two goals and an assist for the Cougars and Radovan Bondra also had a three-point night with a goal and two assists to help the Cats knock off Edmonton on successive nights.
“Everybody contributed today, putting pucks on the net and going to the dirty areas and that was the difference,” said Matvichuk. “We weren’t cheating on the offensive side of things and we weren’t selfish and just thinking points.”
Gabrielle’s line, with Jared Bethune and Nikita Popugaev, was in on three of the goals. Gabrielle could have had his second hat trick of the season late in the game on a 2-on-1 shorthanded chance with Bethune but he elected to make the return pass back to his linemate and Davis Koch deflected the puck out of harm’s way.
“These are the games you’ve got to win against teams (lower in the standings) like Edmonton – you can’t let them get the easy two points,” said Gabrielle, the game’s first star. “We played well, we have a lot of skill on that line and some chemistry going here, we’re playing well together.
“We just got away from the system in the second period and turned the pucks over a little bit but we have a mature group and we bounced back in the third and came out with the win.”
The Cougars (40-19-3-2) got some help out of town Saturday when Everett defeated the visiting Kamloops Blazers 3-1 and the Seattle Thunderbirds scored a 5-3 home-ice win over the Kelowna Rockets. That left the B.C. Division-leading Cougars five points ahead of the second-place Blazers and eight up on the third-place Rockets.
Nick McBride made 31 saves in the Cougar nets to earn his 13th win of the season and 50th of his four-year WHL career while his team outshot Edmonton 47-33.
Just as they did in Friday’s 4-1 win over Edmonton, the Cougars got off to a quick start. Bethune snuck up from behind on 16-year-old Oil King defenceman Ethan Cap as he tried to carry the puck out of the Edmonton zone and stripped it away. That left Bethune all alone at the side of the net and he roofed his shot over the trapper of Josh Dechaine 4:27 into the game.
Gabrielle doubled the lead when he let go a slapshot from the left side on a cross-ice feed from Sam Ruopp. The Cougars got themselves into penalty trouble near the end of the period and nearly had a 5-on-3 opportunity killed off when Connor McDonald wired a shot in over McBride, who had lost his footing in a scramble in front.
In the second period, the Cougars fell into their old bad habits of trying to carry the puck in at the blueline rather than take advantage of their size and speed to win the dump-and-chase battles. The youthful Oil Kings took advantage, forcing a series of turnovers which led to some great scoring chances.
Taking the lead from top-line forwards Trey Fix-Wolanski, Colton Kehler and Koch, the Oil Kings started gaining confidence in the offensive end and badly outplayed the Cougars in an eight-minute stretch of the second period, forcing the Cats to rely a bit too much on McBride to preserve their 2-1 lead. The 19-year-old was at his best when he made a sprawling save to deny Koch from point-blank range and somehow got in the way to rob Fix-Wolanski on the rebound.
The Cougars turned to an unusual source – their beleaguered power play – to take back some momentum 15 minutes into the period. Having scored only 13 power-play goals in 108 opportunities since the Christmas break, the Cougars improved that stat to 14-for-109 when Gabrielle scored on the first man-advantage chance of the game. Dechaine made a standup save on a one-timer from Popugaev and Gabrielle gained the puck at the side of the net, waited, and picked the high corner. The Oil Kings weren’t going away quietly and Tyler Robertson cashed in an Edmonton power play late in the period to make it a 3-2 game.
“The second period was definitely our shakiest period and we got through it with a one-goal lead and took the momentum in the third and had a real good period,” said McBride.
“Bondra is a huge body out there and no one can really push him over, he’s just super-solid and I’m glad we have him on the team.”
Bondra gave the Cougars their cushion early in the final period. He took a Jansen Harkins pass out of the corner and wired a hard shot on net and Josh Curtis picked up the rebound and dumped the puck in the open side. Less than a minute later with the Cougars on a power play, Bondra’s power move in the middle with the puck drew another penalty and five seconds into the two-man advantage his wrister from the point found the net. The Cats’ PP ended up 2-for-3.
The loss for the Oil Kings (20-38-4-2) overshadowed another strong goaltending performance from Dechaine. Head coach Steve Hamilton liked what he saw out of his team playing its fourth game in five nights.
“That was our best game, we got better as the trip went on,” said Hamilton. “We came to B.C. at a very competitive time in this division, everyone is pushing to move up the standings. We’re a young team that’s got some growing to do and this is good experience. It’s a little painful but in the long term it’s going to be good for us. I give full marks to P.G., that's a veteran team and they play a big strong physical game. We responded better tonight and we’re building off the positives.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Prince George is now just three wins away from tying the all-time team record for wins in a season (43), with eight games left. Four of those games are against the Blazers… Harkins picked up two assists and is now within five points of tying Chase Witala for the all-time Prince George record of 239, set last year… Cats winger Colby McAuley served the first of a two-game suspension for his hit Friday on Oil Kings defenceman Ty Gerla, who got crunched into the corner boards and suffered a concussion when his head hit the glass. McAuley will miss Wednesday’s game in Kelowna but should be in the lineup Friday when the Cougars host Kamloops in the first of a two-game series at CN Centre… RW Brad Morrison sat out Saturday’s game after suffering a lower-body injury on Friday. The Cougars were also missing D Brendan Guhle (ankle injury) and LW Tanner Wishnowski (concussion). Both are getting close to returning to action… LW Max Kryski, 16, was called up from the Okanagan Rockets major midget team. He made his WHL debut Saturday on a line with Josh Maser and Jackson Leppard and came close to scoring his first goal a couple times.

 

Saturday’s WHL summary

Oil Kings 2 at Cougars 5

First Period

1. Prince George, Bethune 18, 4:27

2. Prince George, Gabrielle 28 (Ruopp, Bethune) 12:01

3. Edmonton, McDonald 6 (Berg, Mohr) 19:08 (pp)

Penalties – O’Brien PG (roughing), Koch Edm (roughing) 5:36, Bondra

Second Period

4. Prince George, Gabrielle 29 (Bondra, Popugaev) 15:17 (pp)

5. Edmonton, Robertson 15 (Fix-Wolanski, Kehler) 18:10 (pp)

Penalties – Warm Edm (slashing) 15:04, Harkins PG (roughing) 17:27.

Third Period

6. Prince George, Curtis 8 (Bondra, Harkins) 5:47

7. Prince George, Bondra 29 (Gabrielle, Harkins) 6:37 (pp)

Penalties – Roach Edm (goaltender interference) 6:10, Elizarov Edm (tripping) 6:32, Gabrielle PG (slashing) 8:07, Olson PG (slashing) 12:15.

Shots of goal by

Edmonton       8          12        11        -33

Prince George 21        15        13        -47

Goal – Edmonton, Dechaine (L,1-6-0-0); Prince George, McBride (W,13-5-1-0).

Power plays – Edm: 2-4; PG: 2-3.

Referees – Clayton Hall, Trevor Peluk; Linesmen – Ron Dietterle, Alex Teichroeb.

Attendance – 5,805.

Scratches – Edmonton: G Liam Hughes (lower body), D. Ty Gerla (concussion, day-to-day), D Riley Stadel (upper body, week-to-week), D Brayden Gorda (upper body, one week), C Nicholas Bowman (sick), D Wyatt McLeod (upper body, indefinite), RW Graham Millar (upper body, one week); Prince George: LW Colby McAuley (served first of two-game suspension for boarding major penalty Friday), RW Brad Morison (lower body, day-to-day), D Brendan Guhle (sprained ankle, week-to-week), LW Tanner Wishnowski (concussion, week-to-week).