Cougars Doubled By Spokane 4-2

Saturday, March 05, 2011 10:50 PM

The Prince George Cougars had to fight from behind again and again fell short in the end, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Spokane Chiefs Saturday night at CN Centre.

The Chiefs upended the Cougars 5-4 Friday to open the weekend doubleheader in Prince George. The Chiefs, who opened the scoring on the power play in the first period Friday, did it again Saturday, this time on a 5-on-3 advantage. Dominik Uher rifled home a rebound at 9:55 to open the scoring. Spokane added to their lead at 17:35 when Anthony Bardaro banged in the puck in the crease for a 2-0 lead, which is how it stood through 20 minutes. The Chiefs had an 11-10 shots lead through 20 minutes.

In the second period, Tyler Johnson put home his league leading 48th goal of the season past Ty Rimmer at 7:51, giving the Chiefs a 3-0 lead. The Cougars, though, would get on the board at 15:51 when Jaroslav Vlach finished off a pass from Spencer Asuchak past Mac Engel at 15:51. Vlach's third goal of the season cut the Spokane lead to 3-1, with Brock Hirsche also getting an assist. The Cougars were out-shot 16-7 in the second frame.

For the second straight night, the Cougars trailed by two heading to the third, but once again they would get to within a goal when Asuchak tipped home a point shot from Sena Acolatse at 11:52 to cut the Chiefs lead to 3-2. Hirsche would get his second assist on the night on Asuchak's 16th of the season. But the Chiefs went back to the power play late in the third and would connect for the third time, with defenceman Brendan Kichton getting a shot through for a 4-2 Chiefs lead, which they would hold for the victory. The Chiefs out-shot the Cougars 36-30 in the game, but the Cougars had a 13-9 advantage in the third. The Chiefs won the special teams battle, going 3-for-6 and shutting down the Cougars on their two power play tries.

The Cougars, now at 29-33-2-2 and the eighth seed in the Western Conference, host the Red Deer Rebels Tuesday night at CN Centre, starting at 7:00pm. Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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Posted on Saturday, March 05, 2011 10:50 PM in Sports by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Resident on March 6 2011 7:38 AM

And the fight for a playoff berth begins anew.

Posted by: NMG on March 6 2011 8:03 AM

This really shouldn't be a surprise. If you look at the historical WHL standings, for the most part, the Cougars have been a mediocre performing team. Even when they were battling for first place earlier in the year and playing "great" hockey, they were barely over 0.500.

There really seems to be no indication whatsoever that the Cougars will ever be an upper echelon franchise, or that they will ever seriously compete for a banner. And that is the main reason why it is tough for them to attract more than 2,000 fans per game in recent memory. Memorial Cup? LOL. Why the heck would the CHL award the Memorial Cup to a franchise that has displayed such a regular pattern of ineptitude? The reality is that there are loads of teams who are far more deserving.

Posted by: Pylot Project on March 6 2011 11:56 AM

The Cougars are currently playing 0.470 hockey. The only reason they have a sniff at the playoffs is not because of their winning ways, but because Kamloops is playing little bit worse than they are.

6 games left in the season. Three of those games are against teams far superior to the Cougars, and two are against Kamloops on the final weekend.

Kamloops is in the same pickle. They have to play tough teams down the stretch before the PG series.

Cougars need to steal one against either Red Deer, Vancouver or Tri-Cities, to give themselves any kind of wiggle room.

Pressure is on boys... time to see what you are made of.

Posted by: faxman on March 6 2011 12:46 PM

Playoff or no playoffs my family and I had a blast this year and we'll be back next year.

As an optimist I'll be putting my deposit down shortly on playoff tickets.

Posted by: LoveTheNorth on March 6 2011 6:01 PM

Hockey Economics 101

Bad Team = Bad Attendance
Great Team = Great Attendance

One only needs to look back to the 10,000-12,000 fans the Canucks were getting in the Keenan Era. With a winning product the place has been sold out for years in a row.

Not rocket science or marketing gimmicks.

Posted by: leoleo3535 on March 7 2011 2:19 PM

The Keenan era avgd. 16,957

Posted by: LoveTheNorth on March 7 2011 5:17 PM

There was a year or two with 12,000ish. Ask Dan Russell of Sportstalk.