How’s that for a sudden fall back down to earth?
The Prince George Cougars suffered their second-straight loss Sunday afternoon In Portland, a humbling 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Portland Winterhawks. It came less than a day after the Cats left the ice in Everett at the short end of a 3-0 loss to the Everett Silvertips.
When they left Prince George late last week, the Cougars were riding a four-game winning streak and had retaken their place as the No. 1-ranked major junior hockey team in the country.
The Winterhawks made the Cats look rather ordinary, breaking open a tie game with three unanswered goals in the third period, including an empty-netter, to send the Cougars back down the highway empty-handed for the return trip to Canada.
A turnover in the Cougars’ end led to the winning goal, 13:54 into the third period. Jake Gricius picked off a clearing attempt and sent the puck to Brad Ginnell, whose shot eluded goalie Nick McBride, making his first start since Nov. 10.
Brendan De Jong scored 46 seconds later to make it 5-3 and Keoni Texeira sealed it with McBride on the bench for the extra skater.
The regulation-time loss was only the sixth this season for the Cougars (18-6-2-0), who have dropped from first to fourth in the Western Hockey League standings. They still hold an eight-point lead over second-place Victoria atop the B.C. Division standings. Portland (13-12-1-0) remained fourth in the U.S. Division, one point behind third-place Seattle.
There were a few bright spots for the Cougars. Colby McAuley continued to hold a hot hand around the net, scoring two goals, including the one that tied it 3-3, 11:54 into the third period. Defenceman Brendan Guhle collected his second goal for the Cougars since he arrived in a trade Nov. 18 from the Prince Albert Raiders. Guhle’s fourth of the season, on a Cats’ power play, knotted the score 1-1, five minutes after Joachim Blichfeld struck for Portland eight minutes in.
The deadlock did not last long. Henri Jokiharju popped in a rebound and Cody Glass connected on a Portland power play and the Cougars were playing catch-up again.
“We gave the puck away in the wrong areas and both of the times we did give it away it ended up in our net,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk, in the post-game broadcast.
“That’s probably the worst-officiated game, lines-wise, I’ve seen in a long time. The third (Portland) goal was offside by three or four feet, the fourth goal was offside by three feet. Yeah, we did give the puck away in the wrong areas but we should never get to that.”
Matvichuk wasn’t impressed with his forward group, with the exception of the McAuley line, with Kody McDonald at right wing and Aaron Boyd at centre. The coach figured there weren’t enough of them willing to pay the price going to the net in front of goalie Cole Kehler.
“That one line was huge again – McAuley, Boyd and McDonald – they were playing hard and going to the gritty areas,” said Matvichuk. “We’re a believer that with our team, you’ve got to get to the blue paint and it’s got to get ugly to score goals and only a couple of guys right now are willing to do that.”
The Cougars outshot the ‘Hawks 42-31.
Saturday in Everett, the Silvertips leapfrogged the Cougars into first place in the Western Conference in what was head coach Kevin Constantine’s 300th WHL career victory.
Montana Onyebuchi scored the only goal the Silvertips needed, 4:21 into the game, a redirected point shot that beat goalie Ty Edmonds. Bryce Kindopp and Patrick Bajlov, with an empty-netter, also scored.
Carter Hart made 26 saves for his third shutout of the season and 13th of his career. The Cougars outshot Everett 26-21.
The Cougars wrap up their three-game trip Tuesday night in Langley against the Vancouver Giants in what Matvichuk described as a “must-win” game. Cougars captain Sam Ruopp is expected to return to the Cats’ lineup after he served his eight-game suspension for punching Tigers forward Steven Owre in a game in Prince George, Nov. 2.
