The snakebitten Prince George Cougars will try to rediscover their scoring touch tonight in Spokane.
Their inability to put pucks in the net led to a 1-0 loss to the Spokane Chiefs Wednesday night in Spokane and it's been a disturbing trend which has dogged the Cats lately. They've scored just five goals in their past four games - not the recipe for winning hockey games.
The Cougars (32-25-3-1) have lost eight of their past nine games and are dangerously close to being dropped into a wild-card slot for the Western Hockey League playoffs.
Heading into tonight's game (7:05 p.m. start, CIRX 94.3 FM), the Cougars are fifth in the Western Conference, just five points ahead of the eighth-place Kamloops Blazers, who have played one fewer game and play tonight in Everett.
The Cats are two points up on the Chiefs (29-23-5-3), who are in a dogfight with the Portland Winterhawks for third place in the U.S. Division. The Chiefs hold down third, one point ahead of the Winterhawks.
In the WHL playoffs, the second- and third-place teams in each division meet in the first round, while the first-place teams in each division play the wild cards (seventh and eighth in the conference) in the opening round.
With 11 games left, the Cougars have 68 points. Their February swoon has made it highly unlikely they will catch either Victoria (86 points) or Kelowna (87 points) to improve their standing in the B.C. Division.
Jacob Cardif was the only goalscorer in Wednesday's game when he was left open in front of the Cougars net with 17:37 gone in the first period. Lasse Petersen made 30 saves in the Chiefs nets for his third shutout this season. Nick McBride also turned in a solid netminding performance for the Cougars, making 29 saves.
The Cougars will wrap up their four-game U.S. Division tour Saturday night in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans. They lost 4-1 to the Americans Tuesday night.
Injured defencemen Josh Anderson (back) and Shaun Dosanjh (concussion, week-to-week) are not on the trip. An MRI exam this week detected a small fracture in one of Anderson's vertebra and he will not play again this season.
Defenceman Sam Ruopp, who stopped the puck with his neck while blocking a shot in Tuesday's game, is making a rapid recovery and might not play tonight but Cougars general manager Todd Harkins said he will likely play Saturday. The Chiefs have four injured players - defenceman Jason Fram (upper body, week-to-week), forwards Nik Andersen, (upper body, day-to-day), Wyatt Johnson (upper body, week-to-week) and Kailer Yamamoto (upper body, day-to-day).
Ty Edmonds will get the start in goal for the Cougars tonight.
The Cats return to CN Centre for games Tuesday and Wednesday against the Vancouver Giants.
