It’s been a couple of seasons since the Prince George Cougars have been as win-starved as they now find themselves.
For Cougars fans spoiled by the team’s success over the last two years, four straight losses might seem like a lot, but it’s not all that bad.
In March 2022 the Cougars snapped a seven-game losing streak.
In February 2019 a period of consecutive defeats lasted a whopping 17 games.
So don’t fret, Cats fans. They’ll get over it.
No better time to do that than Friday night (7 p.m.) when the Cougars begin Indigenous Weekend with a date at CN Centre with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Cougars faced two of the WHL’s best teams last weekend in their own barns when they were far from healthy and suffered the consequences, losing 4-2 in Spokane and 4-1 in Everett.
As much as it sucks to lose, Mark Lamb knows his team is capable of much better. They just have to regain their strength. Playing in the Western Hockey League demands incredible fitness, muscle power and endurance and that 100 per cent effort needed to be at your best is not possible when players are struggling to breathe with stuffed-up noses and lungs full of phlegm.
“Honestly, it’s really hard to evaluate our team, we’re just trying to stay above water,” said Lamb, speaking through a cold-ravaged throat. “It really caught up to us. Pretty much our whole team is going through this cold/flu and we couldn’t get out of our own end of the ice and just had no energy in those games.
“Whatever’s going around, it’s really kicked the crap out of our team. It sucks the energy right out of you. The biggest thing, when we’re feeling like that, our discipline wasn’t there and we took way too many penalties against those teams.
“We’re on the mend now and hopefully we’ll have some guys back so we’re getting better slowly.”
The losing streak started weekends ago in Kelowna and Kamloops and the Cats were beaten 6-3 in each of those games.
The Cougars got back to Prince George on Sunday and skipped practice Monday and Tuesday, and they’ll need it, having to face Brandon and the Kamloops Blazers on consecutive nights at CN Centre.
The Wheat Kings have been on the road for nearly two weeks now and they’re 3-3 so far on the trip with losses in Calgary, Everett and Vancouver coupled with wins in Victoria, Kelowna and Kamloops.
“They’re a real good team with a lot of good players; they’ve got the best penalty-killing in the league and real good goaltending and they’ve got some depth up front,” said Lamb.
It’s been 2½ years since Brandon played in Prince George and in that game goalie Carson Bjarnason stole the show. On Oct. 12, 2022 he stopped 39 of 40 shots on his way to a 2-1 victory and that helped set the tone for the rest of the season for the Carbury, Man. player, when he got picked 51st overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2023 NHL draft.
This year he has a 9-3-1-2 record and his 2.95 goals-against average ranks seventh in the WHL.
Bjarnason made Canada’s world junior team this year and he and fellow 19-year-old Ethan Eskit make up a formidable goaltending tandem.
“Bjarnason came in here a couple years ago and it was one of the best games I’ve ever seen a goalie play,” said Lamb. “He can beat you by himself and he’s got the cred to do it as a drafted player and world junior player.”
Cougars goalie Joshua Ravensbergen is living up to his billing as potential high draft pick and in its mid-season rankings NHL Central Scouting listed him as top-ranked North American goalie available for the 2025 draft.
Ravensbergen sports a 3.09 GAA (10th in WHL) and .901 save percentage and he has 20 wins this season (second in the league).
Cougars centre Ben Riche, who scored the gamewinner in the last minute against the Vancouver Giants in his Cougars’ debut Jan. 8, and despite being sick for the last week or so he has two goals and one assist in five games with the Cougars. Acquired in a trade from Saskatoon, Riche leads the Cougars in scoring with 25 goals and 57 points.
Friday’s game will mark the CN Centre debut for Cougars’ trade acquisition Alexsey Chichkin. He joined the Cougars in Kelowna from the Regina Pats and he’s hard to miss. The 19-year-old defenceman from Vancouver stands six-foot-five and weighs 218 pounds.
Cougars defenceman Corbin Vaughan is serving out the remainder of a four-game suspension for a cross-checking major penalty and won’t play in either game this weekend.
Wheat Kings forward Roger McQueen, listed fifth in the NHL midseason rankings among draft-eligible North American skaters, hasn’t played since he suffered an upper-body injury Oct. 8. He collected eight goals and 11 points in eight games this season.
