The Prince George Cougars ended the season on an emotional high. They plan to feed off that positive energy when they take on the Kelowna Rockets in the first round of playoffs.
The Cougars wrapped up their Western Hockey League regular schedule with a 5-1 win against the Kamloops Blazers Saturday night at CN Centre. One night earlier, in Kamloops, the Cats topped the Blazers 3-2 in a shootout. That result clinched a post-season berth for the Cougars. And, when their Saturday victory was combined with a 3-0 win for the Chilliwack Bruins over the Everett Silvertips, they locked up seventh place in the Western Conference and a playoff date with the second-place Rockets.
"We have our swag back and that's key for us," said Cougars forward Charles Inglis, who scored Friday's shootout winner in the sixth round of the breakaway exercises. "That's kind of our motto going into playoffs -- swag, just making sure that we're feeling good about ourselves. We're looking good and we're playing good out there."
Indeed.
The Cougars, after a steady slide down the standings in January and February, won four of their last five games when faced with the possibility of missing playoffs altogether.
"Our confidence is a lot higher," said head coach Dean Clark. "We set out to do some things and we achieved some goals. The guys are feeling pretty good about themselves."
One year removed from being the worst team in the entire Canadian Hockey League, when they posted a record of 12-56-1-3, the Cougars finished this WHL campaign at 33-35-2-2. The Rockets, who have Prince George product Brett Bulmer in their lineup, went 43-28-0-1. Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played Friday and Saturday in Kelowna. The third and fourth games are slated for the following Tuesday and Wednesday in Prince George. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. today at the CN Centre Ticketmaster.
In Saturday's regular-season capper, the Cougars led 2-0 after the first period, the goals by Taylor Stefishen and Greg Fraser. Stefishen did the clean-up work on a great individual effort by linemate Brett Connolly, who blazed into the Kamloops zone, cut inside on a defender, and, while falling, swiped at the puck and hit the post. Stefishen, following up on the play, was left with an easy tap-in.
Later, Fraser added to the lead when, out of a crowd, he banged home a centering feed from pinching defenceman Sena Acolatse. The goal was Fraser's first in 23 games.
The teams exchanged goals in the second period, with Thomas Frazee pulling the trigger for the Blazers and Connolly responding for the Cougars on a power play. Connolly's goal, a snaphot through the legs of goaltender Cam Lanigan, was his 46th of the season and tied the number hit by Trent Hunter in 1999-2000. Only Quinn Hancock, with 54 goals in 1997-98, is higher on the all-time P.G. Cougar list. Connolly may have surpassed Hancock if not for the fact he missed 13 games because of Team Canada duty and a knee injury.
In the third, Acolatse added to the Prince George total when he hammered home a power-play point shot. Acolatse, who recently became property of the NHL's San Jose Sharks, had a four-point night and became the first Cougar defenceman since Dan Hamhuis in 2001-02 to score 60 or more points in a season. In 67 games, Acolatse had 15 goals and 63 points.
"It was my last regular-season game and I kind of wanted to go out with a bang," said Acolatse, a 20-year-old originally from California. "I kind of put extra focus to tonight but I couldn't have done it without the rest of the guys. I've got to give them credit and Connolly had a good game too. I was happy with the result."
Martin Marincin rounded out the scoring for the Cougars when he skated into the slot and blasted a high shot past Lanigan.
Lanigan took the loss and Ty Rimmer picked up the win, his 20th of the season. The Blazers -- who missed the playoffs for just the second time in their 30-year history in Kamloops -- outshot the Cougars 35-29.
The game was watched by an appreciative crowd of 4,770.
KITTY LITTER: When the Cougars were on their way home from Kamloops late Friday night/early Saturday morning, their bus broke down and they had to spend the night in Williams Lake. The team didn't pull into Prince George until about 1 p.m.
