The season doesn’t end for another five weeks but the Prince George Cougars know they will be playing in the playoffs.
They made that official Saturday night in Kamloops when they gained a point in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Blazers.
That point, combined with the Tri-City Americans losing 6-4 to the Spokane Chefs Saturday allowed the Cougars to clinch their third consecutive berth in the WHL postseason. As the BC Division leaders, the Cougars (36-15-0-3) are ranked second in the Western Conference, two points behind Portland.
If the playoffs started today the Cats would face the seventh-place Kelowna Rockets in the first round.
Ondrej Becher guaranteed that point with his 20th goal of the season, 12:11 into the third period on a Prince George power play, which forced overtime on Saturday.
Nothing was decided in the five-minute OT session and Blazers forward Jordan Keller’s shootout goal in the third round gave the Blazers the win.
Jesse Sabchez stopped 47 of 48 shots in the Kamloops nets and was picked as the game’s first star. Second star Ty Young made 28 saves for the Cougars.
Ashton Ferster scored in the second period to put the Blazers up 1-0.
The Cougars started the weekend Friday at home with a 7-1 win over Kamloops at CN Centre.
The Cats will be back at CN Centre Monday at 3 p.m. to face the Seattle Thunderbirds in a Family Day matinee. The team will be wearing special pink jerseys as part of the Cougars Fight Cancer promotion. Wood Wheaton Supercentre car dealership is guaranteeing a $60,000 jackpot in the 50-50 draw.
The Cougars and Thunderbirds also meet Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
