As far as the Prince George Cougars are concerned, beating their Western Hockey rivals from Kelowna is not Rocket science.
It’s a formula they figured out early in the season and it’s worked extremely well for the Cats throughout the 2018-19 campaign.
They’ve been pure poison for the Rockets, taking 13 of a possible 16 points while winning six of eight meetings since the season began in late September and they force-fed their opponents more of those toxic ingredients Saturday in a 4-0 win.
Taylor Gauthier blocked all 20 shots he faced to record his third shutout of the season. He had plenty of help from an airtight Cougar team defence that held the Rockets (17-22-3-1) without an even-strength goal in both weekend wins, which moved Prince George (16-22-1-2) back into a playoff position.
Vladislav Mikhalchuk had two of the four goals, playing on a line with Josh Maser and Ethan Browne which dominated both games. Maser also connected, as did Cougars captain Josh Curtis.
It was the Cougars’ fourth game in five nights and they won four of those games, their most productive stretch all season.
Maser maintained his hot streak. After a two-goal outing the previous night he scored the game’s first goal, 7:53 in, using his Houston lumberyard grip to muscle in a perfect feed from Browne, a shot that deflected in off the crossbar behind James Porter. It was Maser’s team-leading 16th goal of the season and he also drew an assist on the fourth goal.
“Since Christmas time we’ve kind of struggled to put the puck in the net and it was kind of nice to get a couple wins here and 11 goals in two games against a division rival,” said Maser.
“There’s definitely a lot of confidence coming to our team here. We know how much these divisional games count – every game is four points and with the standings being as close as they are now every game is so important. We know between us, Seattle, Kamloops, Kelowna, we’re all within five points of each other and every win counts so much.”
The Cougars had all the bounces in Friday’s 7-2 win over the Rockets and they caught another huge break with a fluke goal that gave them a 2-0 lead, 1:08 into the second period. Curtis carried the puck out of his own zone and took off on a left-wing rush, letting go a backhander from a sharp angle that stopped at the feet of Rockets’ defenceman Lassi Thomson. Thomson tried to clear the puck but it deflected off the leg on his blueline partner Kaedan Korczak into the net behind Porter. It was the first goal for Curtis since Nov. 23 and it pretty much spelled the end of the night for Porter, replaced by Roman Basran three minutes after Curtis scored.
The goal was a bonus for Curtis and his linemates Brendan Boyle and Jackson Leppard, who drew the tough assignment of trying to negate the potent Rockets trio – Nolan Foote-Liam Kindree-Michael Farren.
“I was kind of in a slump and I kind of figured it would end up a goal like that,” said Curtis. “It was about hard work. We were up against their top line and we did a good job of shutting them down.”
After being held to just five shots in the first period, the Rockets’ offence was almost non–existent in the second period. The Cougars made it difficult, standing them up at the blueline, plugging up the middle and blocking shots.
Boyle, a 17-year-old WHL rookie, has played well filling in at centre on Curtis’s line for centre Ilijah Colina, who got hurt Dec. 30 in game in Kamloops.
“Boyle is such a smart player and with the help of Curtis and Leppard out there it made a world of difference which freed up the Browne, Vlad and Maser line and we got the matchups we wanted,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk.
Kelowna has the league’s eighth-best power play and in both weekend games that’s when they were at their most dangerous. Late in the second period at the tail end of Leppard’s double-minor for high-sticking the Rockets generated five quality shots on goal but could not beat Gauthier. He anticipated a goalmouth pass to Leif Mattson standing at the side of the net and slid across the crease for his best save of the game.
The Cougars made it 3-0 a minute into the third period. Browne spun a pass out of the corner to Mikhalchuk, who buried a low shot in behind Basran. Mikhalchuk capped the scoring on a power play with about six minutes left.
He continues to lead the team in scoring with 33 points in 41 games, now with 15 goals.
Adam Foote, who took over from Jason Smith as the Rockets’ head coach 14 games into the season on Oct. 23, left the rink searching for answers, knowing his team has lost four straight and is in danger of getting bumped out of third place in the B.C. Division standings.
“We didn’t play well and the score was a good indication of it,” said Foote. “It’s one of those things, the kids are young and we just have to go back to square one and start over, start working hard.”
The teams will meet one more time in the regular season, Feb. 8 in Kelowna. Foote expects a much different result.
“I’m not worried about the Cougars or any other team, it’s what we do and I’ve always said that to our players,” he said. “It didn’t matter this weekend if we’d played any other team in this league. If we play like that we’re going to have the same outcome. We just didn’t have it. We can play better and we didn’t bring it.”
The Cougars will now get set to host the league-leading Prince Albert Raiders (37-5-0-1), who begin a six-game B.C. tour at CN Centre Wednesday night.
