On Wednesday, the Prince George Cougars will load the bus and leave for their longest roadtrip of the season, a six-game, 12-day Western Hockey League tour of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
When asked about that trip following Saturday's 7-6 shootout loss to Edmonton, Cougars head coach Mark Holick wasn't willing to discuss it. He was only interested in trying to prepare his team for tonight game at CN Centre against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
"I'm not concerned about when we leave [for the trip] or who we'll be playing, that's not my focus right now and it's not my team's focus," said Holick. ""Right now my concern is the Lethbridge Hurricanes."
The Hurricanes are dead-last in the 22-team WHL with a 9-34-2-3 record. Since advancing to the second round of playoffs in 2009, the Hurricanes have yet to make another posteason appearance and they're almost certain to miss the playoffs again.
The Cougars have 43 points, nearly double that of the Hurricanes, who have 23, with both teams having played 48 games. Despite that discrepancy, Cougars captain Troy Bourke says there's no way his team will be taking the Hurricanes lightly.
"You have to try to kick 'em while they're down but still you can't underestimate them, any team in this league can beat any team and if we take them for granted they'll do the exact same thing Edmonton did to us," said Bourke. "We have to treat them like a first-place team and come out with a big effort and hopefully the fan support will be similar to [Saturday's game]."
The city rallied around Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada and the additional fan support for Saturday's game against Edmonton, with a season-high 4,062 watching from the CN Centre stands, was not lost on the Cougars.
"That's the most people who have been in the building since I've been here and I thought the boys fed off it and they helped them tremendously," Holick said. "Cudos to all the fans who showed up, I wish we could get 3,000 or 4,000 people here on a nightly basis, they have no idea how they helped our guys. I heard them talking about it in the dressing room, the energy, the noise level, I thought it was excellent and it was great to be a part of it."
The Hurricanes were busy leading up to the Jan. 10 roster deadline, trading for F Steven Alldridge, (acquired in a trade from Portland), F Michal Holub, (Seattle), F Seth Swenson, (Seattle) F Russell Maxwell (Seattle), as well as G Jarrod Schamerhorn (Portland).
Wong ranks third in team scoring with 14 goals and 27 points. F Riley Sheen (30 points) and F Brady Ramsay (29 points) are 1-2 on the Hurricanes scoring list . F Todd Fiddler continues to hold a hot hand for the Cougars, leading the team in goals (27) and points (58) in 42 games played.
Holick says its highly unlikely the Cougars will be getting any of their injured players back for the roadtrip. That list includes forwards Jari Erricson, Chase Witala and Alex Forsberg (all out with concussions), centre David Soltes (knee), defenceman Peter Kosterman (broken jaw), goalie Brett Zarowny (groin).
Lethbridge will be without G Teagan Sacher (upper-body injury), F Carter Amson, (upper body, day-to-day), F Joshua Derko, (lower body, indefinite) and F Tyler Wong,(upper body, week-to-week).
Following tonight's game (7 p.m., CN Centre), the Cougars play Friday in Regina, Saturday in Brandon, Monday in Prince Albert, Wednesday, Jan. 29 in Saskatoon and Friday, Jan. 31 in Moose Jaw. The final game of the trip is Saturday, Feb. 1 in Swift Current. The Cats return to CN Centre for games Feb. 7-8 against Red Deer.
