Cougars Sweep in Dramatic Fashion

By Kelly Sharp

            Over 5,000  at CN Centre watched the Prince George Cougars eliminate Kamloops

Move over, the Cougars bandwagon just grew larger. Devin Setoguchi converted a feed from Jared Walker to give the Prince George Cougars a 4-3 overtime victory over the Kamloops Blazers and a 4-0 sweep in the best-of-seven Western Hockey League first round playoff series before a jubilant 5238 at CN Centre. For the second night in a row, the Cougars power play ignited a third period comeback. Jared Walker deflected a shot from Ty Wishart to pull the Cougars within 3-2 at 7:06 of the third period. There was no stopping the Cats surge, buoyed by the 5,000 plus faithful. Devin Setoguchi pounced on a puck off the boards to pull Prince George even at 11:02 on the power play. The Cougars dominated the third period with a 19-4 shots on goal spread. The Blazers, who scored 3 first period power play goals for a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes, did not threaten with a man advantage for the first minute and a half of extra time. The triggerman then went to work.

Walker set up sniper Setoguchi who buried his one timer past Dustin Butler at 2:32 of overtime. “Again I had so many chances at the start of the game, I just wasn’t able to put them in and it worked out at the end with a quick little shot,” said Devin Setoguchi.

“He’s the best player in the Western Hockey League,” said Kamloops Blazers head coach Dean Clark who did not have to be reminded that Setoguchi scored three game winners in the first round series.

“They found a way to win,” Clark said in noting the older aged Cougars made a difference. The Blazers lost all four games by a goal, three in overtime and could not stop the free-fall which included 15 consecutive losses on the road.

For Cougars head coach Drew Schoneck the entire series was about the Cats battling back. “It’s just the resiliency of our guys we have to take our third periods and translate them into first period starts from here on in, if we do that we will be pretty hard to handle,” Schoneck said.

Real Cyr made 29 saves in the Prince George net, Kamloops Dustin Butler turned aside 30 Cougars shots.

The Prince George Cougars next WHL playoff series  will not start until a week Friday on the road.

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