Home Sweet Home

By Kelly Sharp

       Cougars mob goalie  Real Cyr in celebrating series clinching win over Everett

Prince George Cougars rolled into the Western Hockey League Western Conference final with an 8-2 rout of the Everett Silvertips before 5952 at CN Centre. There was no slowing down the Cougars third period momentum generated from the stunning 4-3 come-from-behind victory Saturday night in Everett.

“That’s a very tough building to win in, not every body gets a chance to come back from 3 goals and we got an opportunity to win it here on home ice and we did not want to squander that, a great effort by our guys to make sure they came out and were ready,” said Cougars coach Drew Schoneck.

The Cougars pounced on the Silvertips for a 3-0 first period lead and never looked back

“It was probably our best game of the playoffs,” added Schoneck.

Richard Rapac with a high wrist shot over the shoulder of Leland Irving opened the scoring at 5:01 of the opening period. Devin Setoguchi, with his 10^th goal of the playoffs off his patented wrist shot gave Prince George a 2-0 lead at 11:14. Nick Drazenovic added the Cougars third goal on an unassisted breakaway at 13:47. His shot just slipped past Irving to once again bring the sold out crowd to their feet.

“You know the crowd was awesome tonight and I think it played a huge role in the energy we had and we just didn’t let up and the crowd was with us and they didn’t let up on us either,” said Drazenovic,

David Reekie replaced Leland Irving to start the second period in the Silvertips net but the Cougars power play defused any thoughts of an Everett comeback. Drazenovic scored his second of the night, tapping in a rebound while the Cougars were on a 2-man advantage at 2:58. Down to a one-man advantage, the Prince George power play connected again when Richard Rapac finished off a pretty two-way passing play from Dana Tyrell at 3:55 of the middle frame. Greg Gardner took advantage of the deflated ‘Tips defense to give Prince George a 6-0 laugher after 40 minutes. Ty Wishart and Jared Walker replied for the Cougars in the third period. The Silvertips managed goals from Peter Mueller and Taylor Ellington, but this one was all Prince George in seizing the best-of-seven WHL Western Conference semi-final 4 games to 2.

“I am so speechless what has transpired here we never really expected this but Prince George came back hard, give them credit for winning the series,” said ex Cougar and Silvertips forward Dan Gendur.

Cougars general manager Dallas Thompson says it’s gratifying to see the Cougars playoff success. “I am happy for the boys, it took awhile they took a lot of heat and some ribbing, but they got it together that is main thing. Drew has been a big part of getting them to believe and getting everyone going in the right direction.”

Cats goalie Real Cyr stopped 28 shots in improving  to 8 and 1 this post season. Prince George improved to 5-0 on home ice.  The best-of-seven WHL Western Conference final opens Friday night in Vancouver. Game 2 is Saturday night before the series moves to the CN Centre for games 3 and  4, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us