The Prince George Cougars are down to their last 15 games.
By this time next month they will know who their first-round playoff opponents will be, assuming, of course, they can keep that postseason berth within their grasp.
And there are no guarantees.
After a long week on the road, the Cats are back at CN Centre tonight to take on the Everett Silvertips in a weekend series. Considering the seventh-place Silvertips (23-25-5-4) are just four points behind the sixth-place Cougars (28-26-2-1) in the WHL Western Conference standings, what transpires on the ice the next two nights could dramatically impact the bottom line of both teams.
In the only meeting between the teams this season, Jan. 29 in Everett, the Cougars lost 3-1.
"Everett is a fast, skilled team and they've got Ryan Murray who's really good on defence, their 17-year-old captain, and we have to be aware of him." said Cougars defenceman Cody Carlson. "He's just good all-around. We have to get lots of shots on Kent Simpson, he's a really good goalie. We know every point is big now, and we just have to stay committed to the systems and that's what's going to work for us."
The Cougars started their trip with a 6-5 loss in Edmonton, in which they blew a three-goal lead in the third period. They lost 5-2 in Medicine Hat, despite outshooting the Tigers 43-20, got spanked 4-1 in Calgary, won 4-1 in Lethbridge and ended the trip with a 4-3 overtime win over the highly-ranked Red Deer Rebels.
"The whole trip was pretty good," said Carlson. "We know we slipped up in Edmonton and I think we learned from that -- we can't be doing that this late in the season -- and in Medicine Hat we played our butts off but just couldn't score. The guys were definitely tired in the Red Deer game but we just kept it simple and I think, with our conditioning, we didn't give up at the end of the game, we just kept pushing and got that [tying] goal.
"Then we drew that power play in overtime and (Brett) Connolly got the winner."
The Cougars did not allow a single power play goal in 29 chances last week on their trip.
"We really take pride in our penalty kill and if we can kill off every penalty it gives us that much better chance of winning every single night," said Carlson. "It's been strong all season but I think it's just getting better and better as we keep working at it. Guys are more committed to keeping pucks out of the net."
Key in the penalty-killing equation are the shot-blocking abilities of defenceman Daniel Gibb and forward Greg Fraser.
"Our guys take pride in that and the main guys who are on there all the time are Dan and Greg, they exemplify what it's all about and the sacrifice you have to make to get the job done," said Cougars head coach Dean Clark. "We were 74 per cent in penalty killing last year and now we're up to 84.2 per cent, which is a phenomenal improvement over a year."
The Cougars will have defenceman Alex Forsberg back on the blueline. He missed all five road games with an injured shoulder. Carlson has been paired with Martin Marincin, the Slovakian import. After taking criticism for a few too many giveaways that led to goals the other way, they've been noticeably better lately at protecting the puck.
"Me and him played really well on the trip," said Carlson. "We talked before going on the trip and our goal was to keep it simple and I think we did that. We were either even or plus every game."
The Silvertips have two players familiar to Prince George audiences, at opposite ends of the junior age spectrum. Forward Parker Stanfield, a 20 year old, played three full seasons with the Cats and in Prince George to start the season until he got got caught up the overage numbers game. He has nine goals and 21 points in 45 games with the Silvertips. Tonight's game is the first at CN Centre in a visiting jersey for just-turned-17-year-old forward Jari Erricson, a Prince George minor hockey product. Erricson has six goals and six assists in 45 games as a WHL rookie.
"They've got some skilled guys up front and their goaltender, Simpson, played excellent against us," Clark said. "We played a good game [in Everett] except for about three minutes and they got a 3-0 lead on us. We know they can be dangerous but our home record is good and I want us to continue that.
"They're in a desperate situation to stay in the playoff picture and it's very close for all of us."
