Three mistakes, one lost opportunity.
And maybe one more nail in the coffin that contains the dwindling playoff prospects of the Prince George Cougars.
The Victoria Royals proved opportunistic undertakers of the task of handing the Cougars yet another critical loss on CN Centre ice Friday, burying the Cats 5-3.
Two giveaways and a badly fumbled long shot doomed the Cougars to their 33rd loss of the season, wrecking their chance of making a move in the WHL Western Conference standings.
For most of the 1,521 spectators, Travis Brown was the villain in Royal blue. He was the willing recipient of a perfect feed in the slot from Taylor Crunk and Brown made it work, rifling the gamewinner high into the net behind Adam Beukeboom with just four minutes left.
Crunk had the puck put right on his stick by an ill-advised pass behind the net from Cougar defenceman Joseph Carvalho. The Royals added an empty-netter from Cougar-killer Brandon Magee.
"The frustrating part from the coaching staff is we've been talking about going north, we have a team that skates and wants to dictate the pace of games," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We want to skate towards that offensive zone and to go back into our zone, unsure, Joe made a mistake and it ended up in our net. We get in trouble when we go back into our end because we're not that type of team."
But for awhile there, it looked like the Cougars might pull this one out of the fire.
Down 3-1 with seven minutes gone in the third period, they found a way to even the slate against the red-hot Royals and set up a spine-tingler of a finish. Zach Pochiro triggered the comeback with a rocket of a slapshot from the top of the face-off circle, set up by a cross-ice pass from Troy Bourke. Thirteen seconds later, Todd Fiddler scored his second of the game and 44th of the season with a speed burst down the left wing to beat Jordan Fransoo wide, leaving an open lane to the net for the Cougars' sniper. That came as a result of difficult long-distance pass from Jansen Harkins, who spotted Fiddler open on the wing.
But that's a close as they came. The Cougars (26-33-3-5) remained two points behind the Tri-City Americans, who lost 3-2 Friday to Everett. The Americans hold down the eighth and final playoff spot, two points ahead of Prince George with three games in hand. The Cats gave just five games left, including tonight's rematch against the Royals, who improved their third-place record to 44-17-1-3.
The Royals scored first, right after their first power-play chance ended in the first period. Brandon Magee's shot went wide and bounced off the end boards to a waiting Brett Cote, who had vacated his point position to head for the net.
The Cougars looked the hungrier team in the first period and had at least five great scoring chances but came away empty. Just before Cote scored, Fiddler, looking to extend a 16-game point streak, stole the puck at the far blueline and was in the clear on a breakaway. He tried the backhand deke but was unable to get the puck high enough to beat Patrik Polivka.
Beukeboom looked sharp sticking out his glove on a hot shot from Austin Carroll three minutes into the second period to keep it a 1-0 game and the Cougars fed off that, keeping their feet moving with a strong display of puck pursuit that led some close calls around the Victoria net. They had lots of shots but thanks to Polivka's rebound control and a quick-thinking crew in front of him, the Cats were given very few second chances.
An ugly breakdown in communication between Cougar defencemen Peter Kosterman and Wil Tomchuk left the puck unclaimed between the two of them and Victoria took that to the bank. Logan Nelson had all day to pick up the puck and shovel it over to Carroll who backhanded it in over Beukeboom's shoulder.
The Cougars responded with a goal of their own late 14:55 into the second. Zach Pochiro's hard shot on Polivka was stuffed and the puck came back to Cats defenceman Sam Ruopp, who quickly lofted a high shot that was tipped into the net by Fiddler.
A minute later, the Royals came within a whisker of making it 3-1 on an extended goalmouth scramble. With bodies piled up in the crease, the puck squirted out to Victoria winger Mitch Skapski who saw Beukeboom flat on his back way out of position and flicked a backhander that got smothered by the pants of Carvalho.
The Royals restored their two-goal cushion just 1:46 into the third period with a 40-foot backhand shot along the ice from Logan Fisher that somehow snuck into a gap between the goal post left by Beukeboom. It was one mistake in an otherwise solid outing for the Cougars goalie, who made 33 saves as the Cats were outshot 38-27.
Forward Alex Forsberg returned to the Cougars ' lineup after missing nearly two months with a concussion and despite his lack of conditioning showed plenty of spunk centring the fourth line. He flattened Crunk and Steven Hodges early in what according to Holick was his most physical game of the year. Cats winger Brett Roulston also returned to action after two weeks out with a concussion and he as well was a physical presence and made a difference with his shot blocking.
"There were some bright spots but it sucks to come up empty," said Holick.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Royals sport one of the best road records in the WHL at 24-7-0-1 and heading into Friday's game they've had great success at CN Centre now 9-2 over the past three seasons.
