It's do or die time now for the Prince George Cougars.
The Victoria Royals have the Cougars caged, one win away from playoff elimination after they blanked the Cats 3-0 Thursday night at CN Centre.
Travis Brown, Regan Nagy and former Cougar Alex Forsberg took care of the scoring for Victoria and Coleman Vollrath did everything in his power to guarantee the win, blocking all 24 Cougar shots he faced.
The Royals now lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can wrap it up Saturday night in Game 5 in Victoria. The Cougars have to win to force Game 6 in Prince George Monday night.
It was obvious early on the Royals were serious about making life more difficult for the Cougars after looking quite lacklustre in Game 3, when the Cats outshot Victoria 42-24 and skated to a 4-2 victory. The Royals dominated the face-off circle, plugged up the middle areas of the ice, took away the passing lanes, and sacrificed their bodies to stop the Cougars in their tracks trying to move the puck up ice along the boards.
"We got away from our structure a little bit, we weren't driving nets and we turned the puck over an unbelievable number of times," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We were just out of sync and we didn't seem to click tonight. They made some adjustments in the neutral zone but we didn't make life difficult for their defence and we didn't make it tough for their goaltender. He saw a lot of the shots tonight."
A Royals' power play early in the second period put Ty Edmonds to the test a couple times and he came up with a spectacular glove stop to rob Gagnon, a native of Quesnel, when he cruised in from his point position to take a pass after the Cats returned to full strength. Less than a minute later, Royals defenceman Brown opened the scoring 4:40 into the second with a wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle that slipped through Edmonds's radar undetected high into the net.
Chances came at a premium at either end but it appeared the Royals were gained in poise and confidence after Brown's goal and had a decided edge in controlling the play and getting dangerous shots on goal. Calgary Flames prospect Austin Carroll flexed his six-foot-three, 214-pound frame and got everything into a shot that forced Edmonds to lick out his pad and Greg Chase was denied a couple times after a Tate Olson giveaway in front of the Cougars' net but the score remained 1-0 after two periods. The Royals outshot the Cats 13-4 in the second period.
The Cougars started the third period on the power play but that backfired when the Royals forced a turnover at the far blueline, which sprung Magee and Nagy on a 2-on-1. Magee avoided a diving Josh Connolly, who attempted the poke check and slid a perfect pass over to Nagy, who tucked it into the net 46 seconds into the period.
There was no scoring in a hard-hitting, physical first period. Each team nailed the crossbar once in the opening frame -- Brandon Fushimi for the Royals early in the period and Chase Witala for the Cougars a few minutes before the intermission.
The game took a bit of a nasty turn late in the period when Magee speared Cougars centre Jansen Harkins while Harkins was involved in some extracurricular activity with Gagnon near the Victoria bench. Magee, who scored five goals and added an assist in the first two games of the series, was sent off for a double minor.
Special teams play made a big difference for the Royals. They held the Cougars without a goal on seven power-play chances, scored shorthanded and cashed in one of their three opportunities in the power play. That happened late in the game when Forsberg latched on to a rebound and tucked it in through the legs of Edmonds.
A crowd of 4,448 spectators turned out to watch what could be the Cougars' last home game of the season. They didn't get many chances to let loose with their vocal chords and unless they were Royals supporters there was no reason to jump to their feet in celebration
LOOSE PUCKS: If Game 7 is needed it would be played in Victoria on Wednesday....Shots ended up 24-24. The Cougars outshot the Royals in the first three games of the series, a 107-73 advantage. Through 72 regular season games, the Cats finished ahead in the shot count in just 22 of those games.
