In his last hurrah as a Prince George Cougar, Chase Wheatcroft gave the CN Centre faithful one more sweet memory to remember him by.
In typical Wheatcroft fashion, his toe-drag move to get free with the puck deep in the Seattle Thunderbirds’ zone and let rip a high wrister into the net with 32 seconds left was a thing of beauty - the last Western Hockey League goal he will ever score.
At that point, the T-birds were already celebrating another one-sided victory over the Cougars, knowing they had completed a Western Conference semifinal sweep. Their 8-2 victory over the Cougars Wednesday means they will advance to the third round against either Kamloops or Portland.
“It felt pretty good to get that last one but I knew that was kind of the end of it once that went in and a lot of emotions came out with that goal,” said Wheatcroft, who led the Cougars this season with 47 goals and 107 points. “I couldn’t be more proud of this group, I think we had an unbelievable year, we’ve done so much and the fans have been great.
“They’re a super team and we kept going at them but they were unreal, unbelievable at shooting the puck and scoring goals.”
After losing 8-1 Tuesday, the Cougars had it in their gameplan to get the first one in Game 4. They set the pace in the early stages and got rewarded with a power-play chance which resulted in a couple of good cracks at the Seattle net, both coming from the stick of Wheatcroft, but goalie Thomas Milic was ready and made the stops, just like he did all series, only allowing five goals in four games.
The T-birds began dictating the play and eventually wore down goalie Ty Young to strike for a pair of goals four minutes apart to once again put the Cats under siege. Sam Popowich redirected a Bryce Pickford shot for his first of the playoffs and Jeremy Hanzel also broke his playoff goose-egg when he launched a wicked blast from the point fed to him by defence partner Nolan Allan.
Seattle kept up the onslaught in the second period and scored three more for a 5-0 lead. Colton Dach snuck a backhander through Ty Young’s armour with a pivot move to set the tone for the period 1:57 in. Bryce Pickford and Luke Prokop each collected their first goals of the postseason before the break.
The Cougars finally got on the scoreboard on a power play that carried over into the third period. Zac Funk took a pass from Riley Heidt and put a low shot on goal while driving in from the right side that trickled through Milic’s pads.
But there was no stopping the T-birds’ offence. Mekai Sanders, Reid Schaefer (on a power play) and Jared Davidson all padded their stats in the third period to seal the Cougars’ fate.
“They’re a great team, they have a lot of good pieces and they come to play every night and I think I can speak for a lot of us in there that’s not how we wanted to go out,” said Cougars captain Ethan Samson. “We did not play to our potential this whole series so it’s a little disappointing and frustrating, but you have t give them credit, they’re a helluva team. They came to play every night and I think for next year that’s a page we can take out of their book.
“It sucks to say, but I think you learn most from losing and we just have to take those life lessons and bring them next year.”
Davidson was the most dominant forward on the ice, scoring his fifth goal of the playoffs on one of 10 shots on goal he had in the game. The Montreal Canadiens draft pick is looking forward to getting some rest before the next round begins.
“I think this was my best game of the whole playoffs, getting my feet moving and getting involved in all the battles on the ice,” said Davidson. “They’re a good team, they play physical, they play hard and they’ve got good top-end skill. It just took us a matter of time to figure out how to shut it down. We really focused on our starts, coming out of the gates hard and heavy and I think that kind of worked for us here in P.G.”
T-birds winger Nico Myatovic, a Prince George native, said his team found a new gear in the series against the Cougars.
“I think Game 2 galvanized us even more than we already were, it was kind of a trench war and we stuck together and when we came up here we just kind of carried that momentum with us,” said Myatovic.
“We have a lot of high-end skill but I think they key to us is we work hard too and that skill combined with that work it’s tough for opponents to handle and that’s what we do on a night-in, night out basis.”
The game capped the WHL careers of the three Cougar overagers, Wheatcroft, and press box observers Jaxsen Wiebe and Cole Dubinsky. Wiebe was serving a one-game suspension and Dubinsky was nursing a high-ankle sprain, knee and shoulder injuries. Not having them in the lineup as healthy contributors hurt the Cougars, who were already missing starting goalie Tyler Brennan for most of the playoffs.
In Brennan’s absence, Young was under the gun all series and bailed his team out multiple times, but could only do so much to neutralize one of the most stacked teams in WHL history. The T-birds’ lineup includes five NHL first-rounders, 10 drafted players in total and six highly-touted prospects for this year’s draft.
“We knew this was going to be a huge mountain,” said Cougar head coach and general manager Mark Lamb. “If we were healthy, and when we’re playing good, we can beat anybody. I still think we could have played better in this series, but a lot of guys laid it out and are fatigued, and you could see that at the end.
“It’s a really good learning experience and getting through that first round is huge. Playing Seattle in the second round, there’s going to be a lot of things we’ll learn from that team. I haven’t (ever) seen a team that put together, through some trades. They’re high-end players they brought in, first-rounders and border-line NHL players and the coach (Matt O’Dette) has done an excellent job with the chemistry.”
WHL Western Conference semifinal
Seattle Thunderbirds vs. Prince George Cougars
(T-birds win best-of-seven series 4-0)
Tuesday playoff summary
Game 4
T-birds 8 at Cougars 2
First Period
1. Seattle, Popowich 1 (Pickford, Davidson) 11:50
2. Seattle, Hanzel 1 (Alllan, Dach) 16:00
Penalties – Schaefer Sea (high-sticking) 3:39
Second Period
3. Seattle, Dach 2, 1:57
4. Seattle, Pickford 1 (Allan, Lambert) 7:41
5. Seattle, Prokop 1 (Guenther) 16:24
Penalties – McNutt PG (cross-checking) 9:28, Mynio Sea (interference) 14:07, Korochinski Sea (hooking) 18:31.
Third Period
6. Prince George, Funk 5 (Heidt, Samson) 0:24 (pp)
7. Seattle, Sanders 2 (Hanzel, Sawchyn) 5:09
8. Seattle, Schaefer 3 (Lambert ) 7:59 (pp)
9. Seattle, Davidson 5 (Sawchyn, Dach) 9:01
10. Prince George, Wheatcroft 5 (Dumanski), Heidt) 19:28
Penalties – McNutt PG (delay of game) 6:05, Kmec PG (slashing) 9:12, Thornton PG (tripping) 17:33, Myatovic PG (roughing) 17:45.
Shots on goal by
Seattle 17 12 11 --40
Prince George 8 8 8 --24
Goal – Seattle, Milic (W,8-0); Prince George: Young (L,3-5).
Power plays – Sea: 1-4; PG: 1-3.
Attendance – 4,024.
Referees – Brayden Arcand, Corey Koop; Linemen: Nick Albinati, Nathan Van Oosten.
