The Prince George Cougars begin a six-game road trip tonight (5 p.m. CIRX 94.3 FM) in Regina against the Pats (24-20-3-2), who rank sixth in the Eastern Conference.
After that, the Cougars will visit Brandon, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current before heading back to Prince George for their next home games, Feb. 7-8 against Red Deer.
The Cougars care chasing the Tri-City American, who beat the Moose Jaw Warriors 4-1 on Wednesday to move seven points ahead of Prince George in the WHL standings.
If the Cougars (18-24-2-5) fail to catch Tri-City and remain ninth in the Western Conference, they will miss the playoffs for the third straight season. With 23 games left, the Cats are going to have to keep doing what they did on Tuesday in a 5-2 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Although it took them a full period to get on track against the WHL's worst team, they put together two strong periods and a sustained effort that had their coach's approval.
"I liked our final 40 [minutes], we had 32 shots and they had 12 and I thought territorially we were the better group," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We started to skate as the second period got going, we were moving pucks, going to the hard areas, we did a lot of good things."
Secondary scoring from rookie Tyler Mrkonjic and a superb outing from second-year winger Brett Roulston, who notched his first goal of the season playing on a line with Mrkonjic and Aaron Macklin, made all the difference for the Cougars in the Lethbridge game.
Roulston also contributed an assist Tuesday. After missing 13 games with a broken foot, the 19-year-old from Whitehorse appears to be back in game shape and is returning to his gritty, hard-hitting, shot-blocking habits.
"Rollie scored his goal by going to the net with his stick on the ice and that was a big goal for us," said Holick. "For Brett to have an impact he has to play a north-south game and finish his checks and be all over the net. He should be covered in icebags every single night. That's probably the best game I've seen him play since I've been here."
The timing of Roulston's resurgence couldn't be better for the shortstaffed Cougars, who will be on the road for the next two weeks missing five injured forwards -- Jari Erricson (concussion), Alex Forsberg, (concussion), Chase Witala (concussion) David Soltes (knee) as well as defenceman Peter Kosterman (broken jaw) and goalie Brett Zarowny (groin).
