The Prince George Cougars are looking to end the streak.
Before it becomes historic.
Losers of their past 12 games (0-10-1-1) there's no better time for the Cougars to rediscover the joy of winning a Western Hockey League game than tonight at CN Centre (7 p.m. start), where they host the Edmonton Oil Kings in a two-game weekend set.
In their 21-year history in Prince George since the franchise relocated from Victoria, the Cougars' longest losing streak happened in the 2009-10 season - a 15-game drought from Feb. 12 to March 10. It finally ended March 12 in Kamloops with a 5-1 victory over the Blazers. Captain Brett Connolly led the Cats with two goals and an assist and his linemate Alex Rodgers contributed four assists.
The Cougars have a long way to go to match their franchise record for incompetence, a 32-game losing string for the Victoria-based team which started Nov. 22, 1989 and ended Feb. 11, 1990. That still ranks as the longest losing skid ever in the Canadian Hockey League and the Cougars finished the season with a 5-65-2 record, worst ever in the WHL.
Now, with the team four points behind Kamloops for third place in the B.C. Division and 19 games left in the season, nobody's pushing any panic buttons yet in the Cougars' camp. Having endured a horrendous travel schedule the past month that resulted in them playing 15 games in 30 days, with less than a full lineup for most of those games and only four practices in six weeks, the worst is hopefully over.
They've had time to find their bearings and get reacquainted with their hockey homes and most of their injured/suspended players are back in the lineup, so there are no excuses. It's time for the Cougars to prove they belong in the WHL playoff race.
The Oil Kings (24-23-4-2) rank fifth in the Central Division and have 12 more points than the Cougars (20-31-1-1, fifth in the B.C. Division, last overall in the Western Conference). The Red Deer Rebels did the Cats a favour Wednesday when they beat the Blazers 3-2 in Kamloops. That left the Cougars four points behind Kamloops in the chase for the third and final playoff spot in the division. The Cougars also have to get past the fourth-place Vancouver Giants, who are one point ahead of Prince George and have two games in hand. The Giants host Red Deer tonight, while the Blazers play the first-overall Kelowna Rockets in Kelowna.
After losing 9-2 to Seattle last Friday the Cougars cleaned up their act on defence considerably in the rematch, a 3-0 defeat. But the league's worst defensive team also had very little success in the offensive end, an obvious cause for concern.
"Our execution has been few and far between," said head coach Mark Holick "With our d-zone awareness we've been missing easy assignments. We've simplified it enough where guys at this level should be taking responsibility for knowing who's where. A lot of the goals in the 9-2 game were a result of missed assignments.
"We were easy to play against in our net-front and guys were getting second and third chances. We can expect our goalies to make that first save and after that our defence has to do a better job of tying up sticks and clearing guys out. Our positioning was not good enough. That's a choice to get nasty and compete in the net-front and those are the guys who will play."
Holick confirmed Ty Edmonds (3.86 goals-against average, .880 save percentage) will get the start in net tonight. Edmonds started Friday's game but was pulled after the third Seattle goal in the first period and returned for the third period. When the Cougars were winning, Edmonds, 18, was their go-to goalie. He's been yanked out of games in yo-yo fashion throughout the season but remains on top of Holick's depth chart, ahead of 18-year-old Patrick Gora and 16-year-old rookie Tavin Grant.
"We have to find a guy who's going to take that net and right now for me, Eddy is the guy - he was our goalie last year and he's our goalie this year," said Holick. "He's just going through a bit of a funk. All players go through it and unfortunately when he does a light comes on and he's exposed. But I have a ton of confidence in him. The guys have to do a better job in front of him."
The Cougars will also have captain Sam Ruopp back for a second game since he served a five-game suspension. Ruopp returned for Saturday's game against Seattle and helped steady the defence, which was also missing Josh Connolly and Josh Anderson. Connolly is back after missing Saturday's game as a result of a slashing major, but Anderson will have to serve the second of a two-game sentence for a high hit. The Cats will also have their two 20-year-olds, Jari Erricson and Zach Pochiro, back from injuries. Erricson missed four games with a concussion, while Pochiro was gone for an eight-game stretch with a rib injury.
LOOSE PUCKS: LW Colby McAuley will finish a five-game suspension and will miss both Edmonton games because he left the bench to join a fight in Lethbridge. RW Cal Babych (hand) is a questionable starter and C Haydn Hopkins remains sidelined with a broken wrist.
The defending Memorial Cup-champion Oil Kings have six NHL-drafted players, including their leading scorer LW Brett Pollock (25-22-47), a second-round pick of Dallas in 2014. Also facing the Cougars are: D Dysin Mayo (Arizona, fifth round 2014), LW Brandon Baddock (New Jersey, sixth round 2014), D Aaron Irving (Nashvile, sixth round 2014), RW Edgars Kulda (Arizona, seventh round, 2014) and G Tristan Jarry (Pittsburgh, second round 2013). Jarry ranks fifth in the WHL with a 2.65 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and four shutouts.
