The Kamloops Blazers wriggled off the hook again, just like they’ve done so many times lately when they get to play in Prince George.
In their 4-2 win Saturday at CN Centre the Blazers exposed the weaknesses that have plagued the Prince George Cougars all season long. Their inability to hold a lead was one last shot to the solar plexus as they contemplate what went wrong in yet another non-playoff season
For the Blazers, the Cougar collapse meant they live to see another day in a one-game playoff Tuesday at home against the Kelowna Rockets – the seventh tiebreaker in WHL history.
It all went south on the Cougars in a five-minute span of the third period, just after Cole Moberg scored a shorthanded goal that put the Cats ahead 2-1, which shot a spike of delirium into the season-high crowd of 5,178.
The Cougars had barely stopped celebrating Moberg’s shot that deflected in off a Blazer defender when Jermaine Loewen lined up for the face-off and caught the Cougar defence napping. His tying shot from the left hash mark one second after the Cougar penalty expired beat Taylor Gauthier. The goal, 15:54 into the third period, came just 15 seconds after Moberg scored.
The Cougars had a chance to gain the lead again less a minute later when Blazers defenceman Luke Zazula was sent to the penalty box. But Cougars defenceman Rhett Rhinehart was unable to avoid a rushing Connor Zary and coughed up the puck at Kamloops blueline. Zary took off and finished his shorthanded breakaway with a backhand deke for his 24th goal of the season.
“Zary made a beautiful pass, we’ve been playing together this whole season and we’ve been gelling pretty good,” said Loewen. “He made a nice saucer pass and I stopped it for half a second and I just knew where I was going to go with it, just a quick release and that was a big moment.”
Loewen finished it off with one more, into an empty net, and the Blazers had their 11th straight win on Prince George ice.
“It was a helluva effort for the boys,” said the 20-year-old Loewen. “I thought last night was an intense matchup against them and they won that one in overtime. Tonight we got down but we never quit, and that’s what I’ve noticed about our team the last two or three weeks is the battle from everybody. Guys are just working hard and believing in each other and it’s just something special.”
The Blazers scored first, 8:48 into the second, when the puck got behind Gauthier in a scramble in front of the net. Kobe Mohr got to the rebound before the outstretched Cougars’ goalie could smother it with his trapper. That came right after Cougars captain Josh Curtis nailed the goalpost at the other end of the ice.
Three minutes after Mohr’s goal, Cole Moberg’s low shot from the point left a rebound for Vladislav Mikhalchuk and he scored his third goal in three games and 25th of the season, drawing the puck back on his stick and lifting it high into the net behind Dylan Garand.
The teams were deadlocked 1-1 heading into the third period. The Cougars outshot the Blazers 14-4 in the second period and Moberg came close on a breakaway chance but was unable to unleash a good shot. Moberg finished his sophomore season with 13 goals and 40 points - third in Cougar scoring - but he’ll have to wait until next season to try again for his first taste of the playoffs.
“It’s just how the season went for us, we’d get a lead or be tied and the last five minutes of just any span of a couple minutes we’d lose it there, it’s crappy but that’s how it finished,” said Moberg. “I was super-happy at the time we took the lead there but at the end of the day it wasn’t enough. It’s hard.”
Garand has been the go-to goalie for Kamloops ever since Dylan Ferguson went down with a lower-body injury. The Vegas Golden Knights draft pick hasn’t played since he got hurt in a game against Vancouver March 6. Since then, with the 16-year-old Garand in goal, the Blazer have won six of their seven games, including their 5-4 overtime loss to the Cougars in Kamloops Friday night. Garand made 29 saves Saturday. The only pucks that beat him were Mikhalchuk’s rebound and Moberg’s deflected shot.
“Some character is being revealed with our guys because we’ve played a number of Game 7s in the last 10 or 12 days and it’s nice to see them bounce back and be resilient tonight ” said Blazers head coach Serge Lajoie. “We made up a seven-point difference (on Kelowna) in a short period of time. A few things fell into place for us but those two wins against Kelowna got the ball rolling.
“The guys are buying in and it’s amazing when you really feel you can accomplish something you dig a bit deeper and I felt our guys dug in when (the Cougars scored) that shorthanded goal. The energy on the bench had been good and that shows a sign of maturity. Tonight was kind of like a Game 7 and Tuesday’s going to be a Game 7. You win and you keep paying and you lose and you go home.”
The Blazers-Rockets matchup was guaranteed when they each finished tied in points with identical 28-32-6-2 records. Kelowna lost its 2-1 lead to the Vancouver Giants when Saturday Giants; Jadon Joseph tied it with 33 seconds left in regulation time, but Mark Liwiski gave the Rockets the win when he scored 3:40 into overtime.
The Cougars lost seven of the nine games against Kamloops in the season series but the improvement was noticeable the last three times the teams met. The Cougars ended their team-record 17-game losing streak with a shootout win Feb. 22 in Kamloops and came close to winning both games on the last weekend of the season.
“It’s tough, we felt like we built some momentum down the stretch, especially in the Portland games and we played really well in last night Kamloops and tonight and just found that old habit of finding a way to lose instead of finding a way to win,” said Cougars assistant coach Steve O’Rourke.
“I know Mark (Cougars interim head coach and general manager Lamb) will address that over the summertime, how he wants training camp and the season to go for next year. It’s going to be hard and it’s going to be competitive because we just weren’t competitive enough times throughout the year. Some of it is just youth in some places and some of it is we just aren’t good enough and we know that, but we’re heading in the right direction.”
The Cougars graduating players - centre Josh Curtis, left winger Mike MacLean and defenceman Joel Lakusta – played their last WHL game Saturday and with a last-place team the changes will run deeper than that by the time the puck drops next season.
“We’ll be spending the next few days together looking at what could have happened and jut looking into the future,” said Moberg. “Obviously it’s not going to be the same team next year, we’re going to have guys who won’t be back and it’d going to be sad to see them go.”
Saturday’s WHL summary
Blazers 4 at Cougars 2
First Period
Penalties – Zazula Kam (roughing), Crossley PG (roughing) 1:59, Leppard PG (high-sticking) 10:35, Kohner PG (cross-checking) 18:08.
Second Period
1. Kamloops, Mohr 9 (Schmiemann, Zary) 8:48
2. Prince George, Mikhalchuk 25 (Moberg, Curtis) 11:50
Penalties – Strange Kam (tripping) 2:24, Mohr Kam (roughing) 18:16.
Third Period
3. Prince George, Moberg 13 (Upper) 14:39 (sh)
4. Kamloops, Loewen 27 (Zary, Zazula) 14:54
5. Kamloops, Zary 24, 17:15 (sh)
6. Kamloops, Loewen 28, 19:11 (en)
Penalties – Rhinehart PG (hooking) 12:53, Zazula Kam (roughing) 15:19.
Shots on goal by
Kamloops 14 4 6 -25
Prince George11 14 6 -31
Goal – Kamloops, Garand (W,11-7-2-1); Prince George, Gauthier (L,15-30-4-2)
Power plays – Kam: 0-3; PG: 0-3.
Referees – Adam Griffiths, Brett Iverson; Linesmen – Nick Bilko, Nathan Vanoosten.
Attendance – 5,178.
Scratches – Kamloops: G Dylan Ferguson (lower body, day-to-day), LW Travis Walton (healthy); Prince George: C Ethan Browne (concussion), C Ilijah Colina (returned home for personal reason), RW Liam Ryan (healthy).
