After a stinky loss Wednesday night in Kamloops, the Prince George Cougars are looking forward to breathing some fresh air again tonight in Kennewick, Wash.
Hungry to clinch their first WHL playoff spot in four seasons, the Cougars will play the Tri-City Americans, who are equally hungry for points in their last-ditch attempts to make it into the playoffs.
Right now the Cougars (28-34-2-3) are clinging to a two-point lead over the Kamloops Blazers in the race for third place in the B.C. Division. The Blazers closed the gap Wednesday on home ice when they beat the Cougars 7-4.
Wins tonight and on Saturday night in Portland would allow the Cougars to control their own destiny as they prepare for a three-game set with Kamloops in the final week of the season.
For that to happen, the Cougars will have to be a lot sharper defensively and on special teams than they were in the loss to Kamloops. They went 0-6 on the power play and allowed one goal on two Blazer power-play chances.
"That was obviously a tough outcome for us, that was the biggest game for the organization in probably a couple of years with a chance to sew up a playoff spot and obviously we were pretty flat and special teams were the difference," said Cougars assistant coach Mike Hengen.
"When you continue to make the same elementary mistakes we haven't made since Game 25 of the season, regardless of the positives that were sprinkled in there (Wednesday), it makes it impossible to win. This is way too good of a league. The Kamloops Blazers are fighting for their lives and not too far behind us either."
The Cougars host Kamloops next Wednesday and Friday at CN Centre, then close out the season Saturday, March 21 in Kamloops.
Cougars sophomore centre Jansen Harkins continues to lead the team in scoring with 78 points and tonight could rewrite the team's record book. Harkins tied Quinn Hancock's season record of 58 assists Saturday night in a 4-3 shootout loss to Victoria and has five games left to make that record his own.
Tri-City is now tied with Kamloops, each with 59 points, but the Americans (28-35-0-3) have more wins than Kamloops (26-34-4-3), which is the first tiebreaker after total points.
"The players need to realize the importance of these game and our playoffs are riding on it," Americans head coach Mike Williamson told the Tri-City Herald. "Prince George and Kamloops play each other three more times, both of them could earn points. We need to win games. We just have to go get it done."
Injuries have plagued the Americans this season. Their leading scorer, Parker Bowles, is out for the season with an upper-body injury, as are forwards Taylor Vickerman and defencemen Riley Hillis and Carter Cochrane. The Americans went 2-8-0-0 in their last 10 games and goaltending woes were a big part of that slump, with Eric Comrie and Evan Sarthou both sidelined with injuries for extended periods, which forced them to use affiliate goalies Nick Sanders, Beck Warm and Casey Kaiser.
Sarthou shut out Vancouver in his return last week and Comrie allowed just one goal in his first game back last Friday, a 1-0 loss to Everett.
"It is the strength of our team," said Williamson. "Both have played very well. Eric is one of the top goalies in the league and Sarts is good too. It's great to have them both back. Eric is healthy and we will probably ride him, but we have confidence in Sarts."
Game time is 7:05 p.m. (94.3 FM, The Goat)
