Now that the pressure's off the Prince George Cougars and they're no longer the undefeated team everyone in the country wants to beat, they can get back down to business doing what they did so well their first eight games this season.
Winning hockey games.
Humbled by a pair of home-ice losses this week to the Everett Silvertips, the Cougars (8-2-0-0) are in Kent, Wash., tonight to take on the Seattle Thunderbirds (2-3-0-0), a team many expect to challenge for the WHL's U.S. Division title this season.
After getting outworked and outplayed in a 4-0 loss to the Silvertips on Tuesday, the Cougars were a better team in the rematch, but Everett took advantage of seven minor penalties handed out to the Cats and scored three power-play goals which made all the difference in a 6-3 triumph.
"It's some adversity we've got to face and we knew it was going to come and hopefully next time we can handle it better and get a couple points out of it," said Harkins.
"They played well, pretty structured, but if we're playing the way we want to play and stick to our gameplan we should have no problem with them. We were close but we had too many penalties and they will cost you. We'll clean it up and fix the things we didn't do well these past two games and we'll learn it and get better next time. We just have to look a bit more short-term and one day at a time and get better every day."
Expect the Cougars to be a lot more disciplined than they were on Wednesday. Matvichuk has promised the Cougars will not be the WHL's most penalized team, as they were the previous two seasons. The Silvertips, who played shorthanded just five times in the two games, served up a reminder why it's best to stay on the right side of the law.
The Cougars haven't had a lot of time in practice to find the best ways to utilize high-end forwards Harkins and Jesse Gabrielle, who just returned from their respective NHL camps Oct. 4, and head coach Richard Matvichuk isn't about to push any panic buttons. The Cougars are still two points up on Portland for top spot overall in the WHL.
"(Everett) played hard and we're still early in the stages here now that we've got all our guys back and we haven't had much time to work systems stuff and that's something we have to concentrate on," said Matvichuk, whose team had allowed just one power-play goal in 42 chances heading into Wednesday's game.
"The bottom line is we have to win the one-on-one battles when we have them and we have to stay out of the penalty box. We were taking the short cuts, we didn't stop and start when we had to, and that was the difference on the penalty kill.
"Everett plays a well-structured game but so do we. There's a reason why we're 8-2. We're going to tweak a few things on the road and hopefully that makes a difference. We've got to go back to work, obviously we're not where we want to be. Being 8-2 is fine and hunky-dory but we have to go back to work to get back to the winning column."
On Saturday, the Cougars will be in Kennewick, Wash., to face the Tri-City Americans. Their next game at CN Centre is on Tuesday when the Swift Current Broncos play the Cougars in the only regular season meeting between the teams.
"We got away from our system a little bit against Everett and they made us pay," said Cougars defenceman and team captain, Sam Ruopp. "Obviously, losing the first two is tough but we have to bounce back. We know from experience from past seasons that penalties are a killer. We have to stay disciplined and stay out of the box and when we do get in trouble we have to kill off those penalties."
Until they played the Silvertips, the Cats had been getting balanced scoring from all their lines. Harkins showed some early chemistry in a pair of wins over the Giants last weekend centring a line with Gabrielle and Brad Morrison. That trio was broken up in the Everett series and aside from one assist from Harkins, the Silvertips neutralized all three Cougar forwards. But don't be surprised if they're back playing as a unit again tonight.
"We have a pretty deep team and every player you're going to play with you're gong to have a good chance to do something pretty special on each line," said Harkins.
The T-birds should have left wing Ryan Gropp in the lineup tonight for his first WHL game this season. Gropp, a New York Rangers prospect who picked up 34 goals and 70 points for the T-birds last season, was returned to Seattle this week from the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack. Gropp's return gives the T-birds four 20-year-olds, one above the league maximum. Centre Scott Eansor, left winger Cavin Leth, and goalie Rylan Toth are the other Seattle overagers.
