Down to their last-ditch effort to make the Western Hockey League playoffs, the Prince George Cougars brought the wrong tools for the job Saturday.
When they reached for their hockey sticks, all they could find were golf clubs. Instead of using them to scratch out a victory to prolong their season the Cougars left nothing but divots in the ice at CN Centre, losing 8-0 to the Spokane Chiefs.
Barring an absolute miracle, the Cougars can start thinking about booking tee times after next weekend. Their hockey season is all but mathematically over.
Mitch Holmberg virtually sealed the Cougars' fate, scoring his 58th, 59th and 60th goals of the season to cement his lead atop the WHL scoring race. His setup man, Michael Aviani, was just as tough on the Cougars with a goal and three assists.
Eric Williams earned his fourth shutout while stopping 28 shots, very few of which looked dangerous. It was a disaster from start to finish for the Cougars, who were playing in front of 1,743 spectators. If it was up to head coach Mark Holick, he would have offered Cougar fans their money back.
"I'm shocked and stunned, I'm embarrassed for the people that paid to see that tonight," said Holick. "We've always talked to our group that the score will take care of itself as long as we put forth the effort and to a man there was not the effort required in this league. We can't go through Game 70 battling for a playoff spot at home after losing the first one and we throw an 8-0 game on the board.
"We were coasting and lazy, cutting corners, we didn't hit anybody. It was completely mindboggling to see our group perform they way they did tonight. We just wanted a work ethic. There was just zero energy."
Holmberg opened the scoring 8:57 into the game, just five seconds after Cougars' Brett Roulston began serving a tripping penalty. Marcus Messier added to the total on another power play later in the period, pouncing on a puck left in the crease after it fell out of the glove of goalie Adam Beukeboom.
Holmberg scored his second of the night early in the second period, a backhander that chased Beukeboom after he'd given up three goals on 13 shots. But it wasn't Beukeboom's fault. His Cougar teammates were missing in action and the siege continued. By the 6:10 mark of second, Riley Whittingham and Jason Fram had scored on Ty Edmonds to make it 5-0. Holmberg, Aviani and Markson Bechtold all scored in the third period.
Holmberg, an undrafted 20-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., also picked up an assist -- his third four-point game in four tries this season against the Cougars. He now has 108 points, five ahead of second-place Nic Petan of the Portland Winterhawks. Both have four games left to settle the WHL scoring race.
"It was definitely a crazy game, we just came out with a better start and had some fortunate bounces that went in for us," said Holmberg, who ended a three-game pointless streak with two assists the previous night in the Chiefs' come-from-behind 4-2 win. "[Friday] night we had a poor start and they came out on fire and [on Saturday] we got pucks in their zone and we were shooting and they went in for us."
Their win over the Cats Friday ended a three-game losing streak in which the Chiefs were outscored 8-1. The fifth-place Chiefs (38-24-3-3) remained one point ahead of sixth-place Everett and are now just two points back of fourth-place Seattle for home-ice advantage in the first round of playoffs.
"When our best players are on their game we're a hard team to beat," said Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur, now fourth on the all-time list for wins by a WHL coach with 595 over 16 seasons. "[On Friday] in the third period Homberg and Aviani were outstanding with Reid Gow and Jason Fram and right from the outset tonight they were all good leaders. These two games were good for us because we were floundering at scoring goals."
The Chiefs left many Cougars floundering in their wake. One of the obvious victims was defenceman Marc McNulty, who left Holmberg unguarded for his third goal, which drew the wrath of Holick. As a result, McNulty spent the final 18:41 of the third period seated on the bench.
"We didn't come out very hard, we had a dead start there and our effort wasn't what it needs to be in a do-or-die situation," said McNulty. "All year it seems we take different periods off. We're right with teams and then we go to sleep and I know it's unacceptable what happened here tonight. I know I need to be better than that."
The Chiefs outshot the Cats 37-28, a deceptive statistic considering the score.
"We laid an egg and it hurts," said Cougars assistant captain Klarc Wilson.
"We had a big meeting before the game and we knew what was at stake but it comes down guys weren't ready. It just wasn't our night and everyone's pretty upset right now and there's nothing we can do. It was not a good effort all around and it cost us. We've dug ourselves a big hole here."
As improbable as it seems, a (26-36-3-5) Cougar team that's won just two of its last 13 games and is four points out of a playoff spot with only two games left still has a shot at making it. That's only because the Tri-City Americans have been equally inept down the stretch. The Americans lost 7-0 in Kelowna on Saturday and have just one win in their last 12. But they have four games left -- two against Spokane, one against Portland, and one against Seattle.
If the Americans gain as much as a single point in any of those games, the Cougars will miss the playoffs. To stay alive and force a single-game playoff in against the Americans in Prince George, the Cougars have to win Friday night in Kamloops, then beat the Blazers Saturday at CN Centre and have the Americans go pointless in their four games.
Saturday WHL summary
Chiefs 8 at Cougars 0
First Period
1. Spokane, Holmberg 58 (Aviani, Helewka) 8:57 (pp)
2. Spokane, Messier 10 (Holmberg, Gow) 16:57 (pp)
Penalties -- Proft Spo (fighting), Macklin PG (fighting) 5:56, Roulston PG (tripping) 8:52, Grewal PG (checking to the head) 16:05.
Second Period
3. Spokane, Holmberg 59 (Aviani, Yamamoto) 1:59
4. Spokane, Whittingham 13 (Elyniuk) 4:00
5. Spokane, Fram 6 (Proft) 6:19
Penalties -- Roulston PG (interference) 6:47, Holmberg Spo (tripping) 8:06, Sozanski Spo (tripping) 18:35.
Third Period
6. Spokane, Holmberg 60 (Yamamoto, Aviani) 1:19
7. Spokane, Aviani 35 (Yamamoto, Elyniuk) 11:30 (pp) 8. Spokane, Bechtold 3, 12:30
Penalties -- Roulston PG (checking from behind) 10:09, Bourke PG (tripping) 14:48, Aviani Spo (holding) 15:07, Grewal PG (interference), Pochiro PG (double slashing) 17:07.
Shots on goal by
Spokane121015--37
Prince George5149--28
Goal -- Spokane, Williams (W,31-17-2-2); Prince George, Beukeboom (L,5-8-0-0, 19 shots-16 saves, and at 1:59 of second, Edmonds (18 shots-13 saves) replaced at 13:09 of third by Beukeboom.
Power plays -- Spo: 3-8; PG: 0-3.
Referees -- Jonathan Stephenson, Derek Zalasky; Linesmen -- Ron Dietterle, Sean Donnelly .
Attendance -- 1,743.
