Cougars host Regina tonight, Saskatoon on Saturday
The Prince George Cougars had their weekend in Death Valley and a horrible time was had by all. It was bad enough losing 5-1 and 7-3 on home ice to their closest geographical rivals in the Western Hockey League. But it was the way they lost that made it so much tougher for the Cougars and their fans to accept. The Cats couldn’t control the puck, their shots missed the target, they took stupid penalties, their neutral-zone breakouts were ineffective, they had no forechecking pressure, their goaltending wasn’t sharp, and their defence-zone coverage was nonexistent.
Until their Blazer debacle the Cougars had all those elements working in their favour. They came in riding a three-game home winning streak, had won four of their last five games and were getting close to being one of the top defensive teams in the league. Now, after giving up 12 goals in their last two games, their goals-against average has ballooned to a mediocre 3.13 per game.
So what do the Cougars do for an encore this weekend when they host the Regina Pats tonight at CN Centre, followed by a Saturday date with the Saskatoon Blades? They could start by doing everything they didn’t do on the ice last weekend.
“We’re going to try everything in our power not to do those two games over,” said Cougars defenceman Ryan Schoettler. “Our practices last week were not the best, just tempowise we weren’t where we should be, so this week we really ramped it up. When we were on those (winning) streaks there, everyone was practicing hard. We do lots of battle drills in the corner like you get in a game.
“Everyone has those nights when nothing goes right and it sucks that it was back-to-back games. We just hope the fans come back and we’ll try and do our best this weekend. As long as we stick to our systems we shouldn’t have a problem with any team this season. We need to get that forecheck going, it’s one of the keys to our game.”
Schoettler, 19, has three goals and six assists in 19 games. As one of the older Cougars and one of the team’s most dependable puck carriers on the blueline he’s hoping to crank up his offensive tendencies.
“I’m not playing bad but I could probably put up more points,” said Schoettler. “We’ve been playing good, we just have to score some goals now. That would be nice. (The coaches) are alright with any of our dmen joining the rush and it’s nice to have that freedom. They have that trust in us to get back.”
Head coach Richard Matvichuk is not worried about his team regaining the edge it had while dominating opponents in the two weeks leading up to the Kamloops series.
“They make this thing 68 games, we’re not worried about how we played in two,” said Matvichuk. “Everybody was bad and we’re just going to move on from it.
“We still are (one of the best defensive teams). We’re not going to look at numbers, it’s how we feel. We’re built around our defence and we’re fine and we’re not worried one bit. We had a really good week of practice, we nailed a lot of details we wanted to do, including our d-zone
We’ve been playing good, we just have to score some goals now. That would be nice.
— Ryan Schoettler
and our forecheck. We’ll go out and play our game (tonight) and win the hockey game and move on from there.”
The Cougars (9-10-1-2) are still clinging to third place in the B.C. Division, which means they’re still in a playoff position, tied in points with Kelowna and three ahead of the Blazers. The Pats (8-16-0-0) started their trip with a 3-2 win Tuesday in Kamloops, then lost 3-2 to Kelowna on Wednesday.
The Pats have leaned on their top line for production and Nick Henry, Jake Leschyshyn and Austin Pratt have delivered. Henry, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick, has 12 goals and 25 assists for 37 points in 24 games and ranks seventh in the WHL scoring race. Leschyshyn, a second-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights, is second in team scoring (16-16-32), while Pratt, a former Red Deer Rebel (10-12-22) is fourth on the team list. Defenceman Aaron Hyman, now in his fifth WHL season, is offensive-minded and has been rewarded for it with five goals and 23 points.
After this weekend the Cougars hit the road for games Tuesday and Wednesday against Tri-City and Spokane, then will return to Prince George for a two-game set Dec. 1-2 against Victoria. Then it’s a return to the road for an 11-game , 6 1/2-week stretch which includes the Christmas break. They won’t be back for a home game until Jan. 11.