Winterhawks put Cougars’ postseason on ice
The Prince George Cougars got swept out of the playoffs, but wow, what a way to end it.
They went down in defeat kicking and screaming in Game 4 of their WHL Western Conference quarterfinal series Wednesday at CN Centre, losing 2-1 to the Portland Winterhawks. But the Cougars’ refusal to go away quietly while giving everything they had trying to send the game into overtime is something their fans will not soon forget.
The youngest team in the WHL has been taking baby steps all season but their showing in the playoffs, despite losing all four games to the Winterhawks, was one giant leap forward in the progression of the Cats and their efforts to give the city a winning team.
Wednesday’s game all came down to a mad flurry with about seven minutes left in the third period with the Cats on the power play, after Winterhawks winger Cross Hanas took a high-sticking penalty.
The Cougars were buzzing the net and Taylor Gauthier was ready for it. He was money in the bank for the Winterhawks playing his former team and made three rapid-fire barn-burning saves to preserve his team’s one-goal lead.
First he got his body in front of Hudson Thornton’s point shot, then he did
the splits to deny Connor Bowie on the rebound. The puck went off Gauthier’s leg, right onto the stick of Craig Armstrong. He let go a wicked one-timer from just outside the crease and somehow Gauthier got his arm in the way to defect the puck away.
“It was close, it hit his arm and trickled wide,” said Armstrong. “It was a close
game, we battled really hard. Portland’s a good team, they have good structure and buried their chances and we were right there. We lost every game by one or two goals. I’m very proud of this group, we battled to the end. That was a close series the entire time and that experience will help us build for next year.”
The Cougars came close again on another power play late in the last minute, with Hanas off for flipping the puck over the glass but could not score to keep their season alive.
“We were struggling to get the bounces it seemed this whole series and that was kind of the story of the series right there,” said Bowie.
Portland outshot the Cougars 42-30 and Tyler Brennan did his part in goal to keep the Cougars in the game, but Gauthier was the one under siege in the late stages and he showed why the Winterhawks acquired him in a December trade after 4 ½ seasons with the Cougars.
“Taylor was great tonight,” said Winterhawks head coach and general manager Mike Johnston. “There weren’t many chances either way (in the “Hawks 2-0 win Tuesday) and he wasn’t called upon too many times to make great saves but tonight he was and certainly at the end there he was outstanding.
“Give our team credit for coming out again and getting the lead, I though it forced P.G. to open up a bit and you saw more of a back-and-forth game. We had some really good looks in the second period that we missed and we don’t usually miss on, and anything can happen when you enter a third period like that.”
Despite his team getting swept, Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb was elated to see his players do so well against a stacked team built for a long playoff run. The Winterhawks finished tied for second in the conference with 99 points, 46 more than the sixth-place Cougars’ total.
“To get in the playoffs with a team like that and playing right with them was impressive,” Lamb said. “Even though we lost four games straight - you’ll never hear me say I’m happy after losing four games straight but I am.
“It’s impressive to play against a group like that, a proud organization that’s going for it, and we’re just trying to find our way. I would have been nice to win a game and then you have a little more belief. I don’t think our guys ever didn’t believe once they got there.”
Prince George native Fischer O’Brien, who left the game briefly in the third period after getting checked into the boards, said the Cougars fans, all 1,727 of them, let the team know they were behind them when they made that last-ditch effort to tie the game.
“We almost put one in and the building was really getting into it and we were all excited, but it just didn’t go our way,” said O’Brien.
“They’re a lot faster and stronger and they have more experience to, we’d never been in the playoffs and I think that gave them the upper hand. At last now we have some idea of the speed and physicality and this bit of experience will help us. It’s way more physical, everybody’s getting hit every single time, it’s way different.
“I just think we played good every game, we never took one off. We were the underdog and we can be proud of that.”