Will they play or will they postpone?
In the Western Hockey League, that’s been a common query this season.
The Prince George Cougars got the answer they were looking for and have the green light to host the Vancouver Giants this Friday and Saturday at CN Centre. That was confirmed Thursday when the Giants ended their team quarantine after missing two games due to COVID protocols.
The Giants had two players test positive last weekend in Kent, Wash., and that forced postponement of their scheduled Sunday afternoon game against the Seattle Thunderbirds and also scrubbed a Wednesday game in Kelowna against the Rockets. But the Giants have been cleared to play and boarded the bus for Prince George.
The Cougars and Giants are both looking to end their slumps. The Cougars (18-23-2-1, sixth in Western Conference) are back on home ice for the first time since Jan. 21. The Cats went 1-4-1-0 in their six-game tour of the U.S. Division and have lost three straight. They went 3-6-1-0 in their 10 most recent games.
The Giants (16-23-2-0) are losers of six in a row and have stagnated in seventh place in the conference, five points behind the Cougars with two games in hand over Prince George. They are 2-7-1-0 in their last 10.
Injuries and players sidelined due to COVID depleted the lineups of both teams in recent games.
The Giants had seven players included in the WHL’s weekly roster report, including D Tom Cadieux and F Jacob Bouchier, both out on COVID protocols. The list of injured Giants included D Alex Cotton (lower body, indefinite), D Nico Camazzola (lower body, day to day), F Zack Ostapchuk (upper body, day to day), Ethan Semniuk (upper body, day to day) and F Colton Langkow (upper body, day to day).
F Cayden Glover (upper body, week to week), is the only injured Cougar, while D Jonas Brondberg is in COVID isolation and might be ready to return by Friday. F Fischer O’Brien is back from an upper-body injury and D Aiden Reeves is also returning to the lineup. The 19-year-old Prince George native hasn’t placed since suffering a foot injury in a game against the Giants in Langley, Dec. 18.
LOOSE PUCKS: The WHL announced Thursday it has postponed two games next Tuesday (Red Deer at Edmonton, Regina at Winnipeg) and a Thursday, Feb. 17 game (Moose Jaw at Lethbridge)… On Wednesday, former Cougar goalie Taylor Gauthier broke the Portland Winterhawks’ franchise record for the longest shutout streak when he made 19 saves in a 9-0 win over the Spokane Chiefs. The 20-year-old from Calgary has gone 232 minutes 19 seconds without allowing a goal, having also blanked the Tri-City Americans in back-to-back games, Jan. 30 and Feb. 4. He broke the former Winterhawks’ record owned by Brendan Burke in 2013-14. Chris Worth of the Flin Flon Bombers set the WHL record in 1967-68, the second year of the league’s existence, when he shut out his opponents for 265 minutes 13 seconds. Gauthier is a perfect 9-0-0 and has a 1.33 goals-against average and .954 save percentage since getting traded to Portland on Dec. 27 for Brondberg. Gauthier’s .934 save percentage over 23 games with the Cougars and ‘Hawks this season leads the WHL… The Winterhawks (28-11-3-2) have gone 16 games without a regulation loss and are fifth in the Canadian Hockey League’s rankings. The WHL has five of the top six teams on the CHL, including the Winnipeg ICE (first), Everett Silvertips (Second), Edmonton Oil Kings (fourth), Portland and the Kamloops Blazers (sixth).
