The Prince George Cougars are facing a must-win situation. They'd dearly love to have their captain and leading scorer in the lineup, but they may have to find a way to beat the Kelowna Rockets without him.
Brett Connolly, who was hurt early in the opening game of the Cougars' first-round WHL playoff series with the Rockets, is considered "day to day" with what the Cats are calling an upper body injury.
"Obviously it's very disappointing when [an injury] happens the second shift of the series for him," said Cougars head coach Dean Clark, whose team trails the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal 2-0 and will face off against the Rockets tonight (7 p.m.) at CN Centre. "That's part of the playoffs and stuff you have to deal with. We're taking it day to day."
Connolly, a 46-goal-man during the regular season, may have an arm or a shoulder problem. He has spent time in a sling since the incident, which happened Friday night in Kelowna. With Connolly as a spectator, the Cougars lost Game 1 by a 4-1 score. Then, in Saturday's second game, they were beaten 7-4. The Cats had chances to win both contests but saw those opportunities slip away from them in the third periods.
Defenceman Sena Acolatse, one of the best Cats through the first two games, said he and his teammates are obviously hoping Connolly can play tonight. But, if he's not ready for duty, Acolatse said the Cougars will still give the Rockets a battle.
"We know we can play without him," said the 20-year-old Acolatse, who has a team-leading three points (one goal, two assists) in the playoffs. "When he was gone at world juniors we played some of our best hockey and we know we can score without him. We got four goals in Kelowna [on Saturday] without him. He's a huge part of our team but we're not going to look into it too much."
In the absence of Connolly, first-overall draft pick Alex Forsberg played alongside Taylor Stefishen and James Dobrowolski on the Cougars' top line in Game 2. If Connolly is a no-go tonight, Clark said he'll likely stick with that line combination.
"I thought Alex had a heck of a game," Clark said of the 16-year-old Forsberg, who was making his first-ever WHL playoff appearance. "I thought he played very, very well in Game 2."
For the Cougars, falling behind 3-0 in the series would leave them with an almost impossible task -- having to win four in a row against a talented and poised Rockets team to advance to the second round. Tonight, the Cats will have to stay focused for all three periods, something they weren't able to do in the first two games.
"Mental mistakes were our problem in the third period last game," Acolatse said. "We didn't have too much playoff experience but now everyone's got experience -- two games -- and we've just got to cut down on the mental mistakes because that's what gave them momentum and led to them scoring."
The other area where the Cougars need to be stronger is in goal. Playoff rookie Ty Rimmer was solid in Game 1 but had some troubles in Game 2. Now would be the perfect time for him to steal a win for the Cougars.
"I think he's been adequate," Clark said of the 19-year-old Rimmer. "I think that what we need is a bigger save. [Kelowna's Adam] Brown makes a couple big saves in the third period of the second game and they go on to win. We didn't get that. [Rimmer] has played well. Has he played great? Not yet, and that's something we need moving forward. We need him to get on a real solid roll. He's going to have to make some huge saves and then when he does that for us we've got to respond and get him a goal or two."
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