Prince George Cougars fan Sharlene Craig got to CN Centre with her chair 90 minutes before the Tickets North booth opened.
She wanted to make sure she got her choice of seats for Cougars’ second-round playoff games next weekend and wanted to be there as soon as tickets went on sale Thursday morning and she was first in line.
“I’ve tried being in line before and I wanted to be first this time,” said Craig. “The Cougars are awesome. I’ll be a season ticket holder next year. I’ve followed them since they started.
“I like Zac (Funk). They seem very strong all the way around. It really brings in a lot of people and fills the stands.”
The 11 a.m. ticket office availability was leaked out during the broadcast of Wednesday’s series-clinching 3-2 win over the Spokane Chiefs when Cougars business manager Taylor Dakers confirmed it with play-by-play announcer Cole Waldie.
Rose Bowker is a season subscriber but was out of town so didn’t get her playoff tickets right away and she was there to line up Thursday with about 35 other ticket buyers.
Including their four playoff game wins over the Chiefs the Cougars are cooking on a 21-0-1-1 clip and Bowker says there will be no stopping them.
“They’re going to take it all this year, 30th anniversary, it’s the big one,” said Bowker, a Cougar fan for 25 years since she and her family moved to Prince George from northern Alberta. “They’ve got so many great players, it’s bound to come together. They developed so many good players.”
She’s hoping to see sellout crowds during the rest of the playoffs.
“You see the people come out to support the team when they’re doing well, that’s what it’s all about,” said Bowker. “If you want to have a WHL team, there has to be support. It’s a good atmosphere.”
The Cougars’ second-round opponent has yet to be determined and Bowker is hoping it will be the Vancouver Giants. She knows the family of Giants winger Cameron Schmidt, a Prince George native who emerged as one of the WHL’s top rookies this season.
“It would just be awesome to see our homegrown Cameron Schmidt play again,” said Bowker. “He sure is doing well. He actually played hockey with my grandson.”
Dan Sullivan has been a Cougar fan since he was in elementary school and remembers the excitement of watching the likes of Blair Betts, Dan Hamhuis and Scott Myers push the Cats into the third round, a playoff run that ended with a five-game loss to Spokane. He thinks this team is the best ever since the Cats moved north from Victoria in 1994, and will prove it this spring.
“It’s like watching NHL-calibre players every game, especially when they play that top line, it’s so exciting to watch,” said Sullivan.
“This is by far the longest line for playoff tickets I’ve seen. It’s about time they got sellout crowds. For how well they’ve played it was disappointing (during the season) when they would announce maybe 3,000 or 4,000 in attendance and they can fit 6,000. I’ll be buying playoff tickets for every game they’re here till the end.”
Tony Ciolfitto attended about a third of the Cougars home games in the regular season and plans on sitting in a packed house for all of their future home playoff dates. He’s seen enough of this year’s team to know the Western Conference champions are a special group, capable of playing a lot of hockey over the next two months.
Not only does Ciolfitto think the Cougars will win their first WHL championship - he predicts the Cats will be going to Michigan in early June, hoisting the Memorial Cup in Saginaw.
“We’ve got a winning team, all the way to the Memorial Cup, and we’re going to win it when we get there,” said Ciolfitto. “This is the best team we’ve ever seen in Prince George.”
The CN Centre ticket office is open Tuesday-Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are also available online at Tickets North website.
