After Wednesday's wild 7-6 victory over the Kelowna Rockets, which capped a two-game sweep of the WHL's B.C. Division leaders, the Prince George Cougars will have a tough act to follow.
They host the fleet-footed Victoria Royals, the second-ranked team in the division, in a two-game set tonight and Saturday at CN Centre. For the youthful Cougars to play the role as spoilers again they will need a total team buy-in to the gameplan, just like they got in the two games against the Rockets.
If those two games are any indication, there really is reason to believe the hype that January's fire sale of the team's most marketable veterans, traded to other teams for young and promising prospects and draft picks, will pay off in a team capable of taking a run at a league title one or two years down the road.
Right now that's well beyond the realm of possibility for the Cougars (22-33-4-2) who are 15 points out of a wild-card playoff spot with just nine games left. Cougar fans will have to accept that for the rest of this season, the small victories, like beating Kelowna on consecutive nights, are setting the stage for better things to come.
The Cougars did the Royals a favour by beating the Rockets. Victoria (35-24-3-2) still has a shot at catching Kelowna for the division lead, trailing the Rockets by seven points. Each has eight games left. The Royals are 3-6-0-1 in their last 10 games and are hoping to end a three-game losing streak.
"With where we're at we know the playoffs are a big hill to climb so we're focusing on playing our game, our system, our style with our players and we're not worried about if it's Kelowna or Victoria or Portland," said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk.
'"We're putting a gameplan in place that will set us up for the future. For the guys that have next year, this is a tryout for them and the last two games have been fantastic. Our will to compete and our energy has been off the charts."
The Cougars ended a nine-game losing streak against the Rockets with their 4-1 win on Tuesday.
"To bring four points there, someone said that's the first time in 10 years (the Cougars had swept a two-game series with Kelowna) and that's a good hockey club," said Matvichuk. "They're powerful and they have guys who can score goals. They've got three 30-goal scorers (Kole Lind, Dillon Dube and Carsen Twarynski) and give our guys credit. Being down 3-0 and 4-1 (Wednesday) not once did our bench drop or not think we're going to win. I thought, regardless of the score in the first and second, we played pretty well, and then to come out with the resiliency, it was an entertaining finish."
Wednesday's game featured two-goal outbursts from Cougar forwards Brogan O'Brien and Ilijah Colina. The dent they made on the scoreboard overshadowed a three-goal, one-assist game from Kelowna right winger Lind, who just signed with the Vancouver Canucks (see Sports In Brief, at right).
O'Brien has struggled to regain the form he showed as the Cougars' top player before he went down with a knee injury which sidelined him for seven weeks. But the 20-year-old Prince George native has been playing much better the past two weeks knowing that while his WHL career is coming to an end, there are pro and university scouts watching who could well determine where he plays next season.
"It was a good feeling (getting the two wins), I think we deserved it, we outplayed them in both games," said O'Brien, who scored his 11th and 12th goals. "They're a skilled team and we just wanted it more and it paid off.
"The (knee) has been fine. It was a little tough to get back the first couple games but I've been feeling well lately and playing well lately, it's going good. The last five or six games have been really strong for me and I'm looking forward to keeping it going for the last nine. It's nice to get a goal once in a while."
Colina scored the game-winner with just 18 seconds left, cashing in a power-play chance with a one-timer set up in the slot by a pass from Josh Curtis.
"Our power play's been pretty good of late, we did well on the road trip, getting one a game and that one at the end was a big goal," said O'Brien.
The just-turned 18-year-old Colina started Wednesday's game centring a line with Ethan Browne and Vladislav Mikhalchuk. Colina drew time on the power play and has been everything the Cougars expected when they got him from Portland in the Dennis Cholowski deal. The North Delta native has five goals and seven assists in 21 games with the Cats since the trade was made. His game Wednesday stands out as his best so far in a Cougar uniform.
"There were lots of ups and downs and we just kept battling and made the most of it, we just stayed positive on the bench and kept fighting," said Colina. "I'm having lots of fun. I love all the guys, they've welcomed me like a brother, so it's been good so far. I'm playing with two good players with Vlad and Ethan, it's a good line."
After this weekend's games the Cougars will have just three home games left. They host Portland next Tuesday and Wednesday, then go on the road for four games before returning to CN Centre to wrap up the season against Kamloops on March 17.
