Get ready for it, Prince George.
For the first time in five years, the Prince George Cougars are in the WHL playoffs.
It took some mathematics to decide it, after a 3-1 loss Saturday to the Kelowna Rockets in Kelowna, but the Cats ended up sixth in the Western Conference standings, which means they will play the Portland Winterhawks in a first-round series that starts next Friday in Portland, Ore.
The third-place Winterhawks were one of the hottest teams in the WHL down the stretch, having added former Cougar goalie Taylor Gauthier just before the trade deadline, but the Cougars don’t care about how the Winterhawks did this season. Sporting the youngest lineup in the WHL this season, these Cats ae just happy to be going to the postseason show.
“It’s very exciting, especially with the young group we have, it’s a lot of growth we went through this year,” said Cougars head coach and general manager Mark Lamb. “Now we’re going into playoffs and that’s what you play hockey for. We get a chance to play in the playoffs and that is very special.
“We went through a lot of growing pains this year at certain times and we just stuck with it. We played guys and developed guys and we didn’t steer away from our plan. We just kept pushing and pushing and to get it the playoffs was the ultimate goal and I’m very proud of the guys.”
The Winterhawks (47-16-3-2) totaled 99 points, tied with Kamloops, 46 points ahead of the Cougars (24-39-4-1).
With their loss Saturday in Kelowna, the Cougars ended up tied in points with the Vancouver Giants and Spokane Chiefs, each with 53. In the event of a three-way tie, the first tie-breaker is wins, and all three teams finished the 68-game season with 24 victories. To determine the next tiebreaker, the higher position goes to the team with the highest ratio when taking goals-for and subtracting goals-against during the regular season.
The Cougars topped that ratio to finish sixth, followed by the seventh-place Chiefs and the eighth-place Giants. Vancouver, 5-2 losers Saturday in Kamloops, will open the playoffs against the first-place Everett Silvertips, Spokane will take on the second-place Kamloops Blazers, and the Cougars are matched with third-place Portland. The Seattle Thunderbirds finished fourth and will host the Kelowna Rockets in the other Western Conference opening-round series.
The Cats finished third in the B.C. Division behind Kamloops and Kelowna. The Victoria Royals, who lost 4-2 to Spokane Saturday in Victoria, missed the playoffs, along with the Tri-City Americans.
It was much more cut and dried in the Eastern Conference. Heading into the weekend, the eighth and final playoff spot was the only one not already decided and four teams, including Prince Albert, Swift Current, Regina and Calgary had a shot at it. The Prince Albert Raiders locked that up Saturday with their 5-1 win over Brandon, coupled with the Regina Pats’ 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg ICE, and the first-place ICE will host the Raiders in the first round. The other playoff matchups pit the second-place Edmonton Oil Kings against seventh-place Lethbridge Hurricanes, third-place Red Deer Rebels against Brandon Wheat Kings and fourth-place Moose Jaw Warriors against fifth-place Saskatoon Blades.
All opening-round series start next Friday except for the Lethbridge-Edmonton series, which starts Thursday in Edmonton.
The Cougars will be in Portland for games Friday and Saturday, then return to Prince George to play the Winterhawks Tuesday and Wednesday at CN Centre. Game 5, if needed, would be played Saturday, April 30 in Portland, with Game 6 scheduled for Prince George on Monday, May 2 and Game 7 in Portland on Wednesday, May 4.
The Cougars solidified their playoff chances Friday night in Kamloops with a 4-2 win over the Blazers but came out with an uninspired performance against the Rockets in the final regular-season game Saturday. Kelowna rookie Andrew Cristall scored his 27th and 28th goals of the season and added an assist on linemate’s Mark Liwiski’s second period goal. Cayden Glover was the goalscorer for Prince George. Glover spoiled Jari Kykkanen’s shoutout with 4:19 left in the third period. The Cougars were outshot 28-19.
“In the last week, with the tie games and (the win over Kamloops) last night, it was real emotional and I was worried about trying to keep that emotional level tonight, it’s very hard to do, especially playing against a good team and I thought we were real flat tonight,” said Lamb.
Single game playoff tickets are now on sale at www.ticketsnorth.ca and start at $16 for all Cougar home games in the first round.
Playoff ticket packages start at $180 and are available in each section (Red, Blue, Silver, Green) wit senior, youth, and child pricing also available. Playoff ticket packages guarantees the same seat for all playoff home games. Package holders save a minimum of 20 per cent off walk-up prices.
Fans have two options to secure their ticket packages. They can put down a 10 per cent deposit on 2022-23 season memberships, plus 50 per cent payment on a playoff package, or purchase their playoff package in full. Any remaining balance or credit will be handled at the end of the playoffs.
Playoff tickets are available are available in person at the TicketsNorth box office or by phone (250-596-9964) starting on Tuesday.
