Cougars Face Kelowna In Round 1 Of WHL Playoffs, Defeat Kamloops 5-1 Saturday

Saturday, March 19, 2011 10:34 PM

It'll be the Prince George Cougars and Kelowna Rockets in the opening round of the WHL playoffs, after the Cougars clinched the seventh seed with a 5-1 victory over Kamloops to end the 2010-11 regular season at CN Centre Saturday, to go along with a Chilliwack Bruins 3-0 victory over Everett.

The Cougars clinched a playoff spot Friday with a thrilling 3-2 shoot-out victory over the Blazers in Kamloops and overtook the Silvertips for seventh spot in the conference. The Cougars opened the scoring again on the Blazers, when Brett Connolly marched in on the left wing side and cut to the middle and fired a shot past Cam Lanigan that hit the goal post on the glove side. The rebound bounced out to Taylor Stefishen who notched his 24th goal of the season at 5:42. Sena Acolatse picked up an assist, becoming the fourth Cougars defenceman and the first since Dan Hamhuis in 2002 to reach 60 points in a season. Greg Fraser added to the lead with 2:37 to play in the first, banging home the puck from a goal mouth scramble for his 17th of the year, set up by Wilson Dumais and Acolatse. The Cougars out-shot the Blazers 15-10 in the first.

Kamloops would get on the board in the second when Thomas Frazee roofed a shot over Ty Rimmer's glove hand to cut the Cougars lead to 2-1 at 5:13 of the middle frame. But with the Cougars on a 5-on-3 power play, Connolly raced into the Blazers zone on the right side and snuck a shot through Lanigan for the Captain's 46th goal of the season. Connolly has scored in five straight games and ties Trent Hunter for second all-time for the Prince George Cougars in goals in a single season. Acolatse and Martin Marincin drew the assists to get the Cougars back up by a pair at 3-1. The Blazers out-shot the Cougars 13-7 in the second period.

The Cougars finished out the scoring on the regular season with goals from Acolatse and Marincin. Acolatse fired home a shot from the left point at 8:45 on a Cougars power play to make it 4-1 on his 15th goal of the year and fourth point of the night. Connolly and Marincin picked up the assists. Then Marincin snapped home his 14th goal of the season, picking off a pass at centre and then going high glove side to give the Cougars a 5-1 lead. The Cougars were out-shot 12-7 in the third and 35-29 in the game, but Ty Rimmer came up big again with 34 saves in the Cougars cage. Prince George went 2-for-5 on the power play and the Blazers went 0-for-3.

The Cougars will open the playoffs next Friday and Saturday in Kelowna, with games 1 and 2 of the best of 7 Western Conference Quarter Final. The Cougars will host games 3 and 4 on Tuesday, March 29 and Wednesday, March 30. Game 5, if necessary, would be in Kelowna on Friday, April 1. Game 6, if necessary, in Prince George on Sunday, April 3 starting at 5:00pm and Game 7, if necessary, back in Kelowna on Tuesday, March 5. Games 3 and 4 at CN Centre start at 7:0pm and tickets go on sale Monday morning at 10:00am. For more information, call Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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