nivek_wahs
04-17-2007, 03:13 AM
PG Citizen (http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52077&Itemid=160)
Sabre-toothed Cats silence Silvertips
JASON PETERS
Citizen staff
(Sports) Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 00:00 PST
One of these teams knew what to do with a three-goal lead.
Score a whole bunch more.
The Prince George Cougars tore apart the Everett Silvertips 8-2 Monday night at CN Centre to win their best-of-seven WHL Western Conference semifinal series 4-2. The Cats had a 3-0 advantage after the first period and, after that, kept coming at the Silvertips in waves. During Game 5 of the series Saturday night in Everett, the Silvertips led 3-0 after 40 minutes but could not hold off the Cats and were eventually forced to digest a 4-3 loss.
After the first couple goals on Monday, the Cougars could sense that the Silvertips were sagging, so the Cats pounced.
“The crowd was awesome tonight and I think it played a huge roll in the energy we had,” said hometown boy Nick Drazenovic, who scored two goals on the night. “We just didn’t let up. The crowd was with us, and they didn’t let up on us either.”
Evidently, interest in WHL hockey is back in a big way in Prince George. The game was sold out, with 5,952 supporters in the seats. Those same seats were half empty for most of the regular season, when an average of 2,967 people showed up on game nights to watch an inconsistent Cougars team.
Drazenovic used the word “awesome” to describe the feeling of dominating the CHL’s top club in front of a packed house.
“You’ve got to thank those loyal fans that came when we were down, but let’s take this bandwagon to the top,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The Cougars advanced to face the Vancouver Giants in the Western Conference final, a best-of-seven affair that will start Friday night in Vancouver and will continue Saturday. Games 3 and 4 will be on CN Centre ice next Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the last four periods of the semifinal series, the Cougars outscored the Silvertips 12-2. Even with the momentum the Cats built after the dramatic comeback win Saturday at the Everett Events Center, Prince George coach Drew Schoneck said he “absolutely” did not expect to see a blowout in Game 6.
“Those two goals early really lifted our guys up,” said Schoneck, who watched from the bench as Richard Rapac and Devin Setoguchi gave the Cats a 2-0 lead before the first period was 12 minutes old. “They made the goaltender change (from Leland Irving to David Reekie) and we got that early one on him too. Certainly I never expected it to be that way. This is a very good hockey club that we were playing. And you know what? They never quit until the final buzzer.”
Reekie entered Monday’s game having only played 42 minutes of playoff hockey this spring. He made one relief appearance in Everett’s first-round series against the Spokane Chiefs. Reekie was welcomed into the blowout game by Drazenovic, who beat him with a breakaway goal. It was the third shot the 19-year-old Reekie faced. Irving, meanwhile, gave up two goals on seven shots.
In the second period, the Cats put three more pucks past Reekie for an unthinkable 6-0 lead. Drazenovic and Rapac scored power-play goals, Rapac’s off a terrific passing play with Dana Tyrell as the two players stormed in on a two-on-one break.
The Silvertips finally solved Prince George goalie Real Cyr (now 8-1 in the playoffs) at the 5:39 mark of the third when Peter Mueller converted on a power-play chance. Ty Wishart and Jared Walker replied for the Cougars before Taylor Ellington closed out the scoring.
Everettt coach Kevin Constantine said his team got down emotionally after surrendering the first two goals. His Silvertips finished the regular season in first place in the league with a 54-15-1-2 record, good for 111 points. For those keeping count, that’s 37 more points than the Cougars, who went 33-31-3-5 during the regular schedule. Given Everett’s successful season, Constantine had a positive message for his troops after the lambasting.
“(I told them) how proud I was of them,” he said. “That team in the locker room put two banners up in our building this year (one for the division title and the other for the league championship).
“We can sit and second guess all night long about this series. Bottom line is that this team accomplished a lot during the year so we’re real proud of them.”
Constantine said he was not surprised by how well the Cougars played in the series.
“We knew they had a great second half to their season and we knew they just swept a pretty good Kamloops team,” he said. “There’s nothing about that that would end up surprising you. We knew they had talented forwards and those guys did a good job in the series.”
The Cougars had limited success against the Giants this season. But, after knocking out the powerful Silvertips, they have every reason to believe they can win yet another series.
“We played better against them in the second half (of the season),” Schoneck said. “They’re a team that’s going to be rested and they’re going to come after us. But we have to play our game plan. We’ll sit down and formulate the game plan that we’re going to go after them with and we’ll stick to it and hopefully we can keep it going.”
The Cougars last appeared in the Western Conference final in 1999-2000. That year, they lost in five games to the Spokane Chiefs.
Sabre-toothed Cats silence Silvertips
JASON PETERS
Citizen staff
(Sports) Tuesday, 17 April 2007, 00:00 PST
One of these teams knew what to do with a three-goal lead.
Score a whole bunch more.
The Prince George Cougars tore apart the Everett Silvertips 8-2 Monday night at CN Centre to win their best-of-seven WHL Western Conference semifinal series 4-2. The Cats had a 3-0 advantage after the first period and, after that, kept coming at the Silvertips in waves. During Game 5 of the series Saturday night in Everett, the Silvertips led 3-0 after 40 minutes but could not hold off the Cats and were eventually forced to digest a 4-3 loss.
After the first couple goals on Monday, the Cougars could sense that the Silvertips were sagging, so the Cats pounced.
“The crowd was awesome tonight and I think it played a huge roll in the energy we had,” said hometown boy Nick Drazenovic, who scored two goals on the night. “We just didn’t let up. The crowd was with us, and they didn’t let up on us either.”
Evidently, interest in WHL hockey is back in a big way in Prince George. The game was sold out, with 5,952 supporters in the seats. Those same seats were half empty for most of the regular season, when an average of 2,967 people showed up on game nights to watch an inconsistent Cougars team.
Drazenovic used the word “awesome” to describe the feeling of dominating the CHL’s top club in front of a packed house.
“You’ve got to thank those loyal fans that came when we were down, but let’s take this bandwagon to the top,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The Cougars advanced to face the Vancouver Giants in the Western Conference final, a best-of-seven affair that will start Friday night in Vancouver and will continue Saturday. Games 3 and 4 will be on CN Centre ice next Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the last four periods of the semifinal series, the Cougars outscored the Silvertips 12-2. Even with the momentum the Cats built after the dramatic comeback win Saturday at the Everett Events Center, Prince George coach Drew Schoneck said he “absolutely” did not expect to see a blowout in Game 6.
“Those two goals early really lifted our guys up,” said Schoneck, who watched from the bench as Richard Rapac and Devin Setoguchi gave the Cats a 2-0 lead before the first period was 12 minutes old. “They made the goaltender change (from Leland Irving to David Reekie) and we got that early one on him too. Certainly I never expected it to be that way. This is a very good hockey club that we were playing. And you know what? They never quit until the final buzzer.”
Reekie entered Monday’s game having only played 42 minutes of playoff hockey this spring. He made one relief appearance in Everett’s first-round series against the Spokane Chiefs. Reekie was welcomed into the blowout game by Drazenovic, who beat him with a breakaway goal. It was the third shot the 19-year-old Reekie faced. Irving, meanwhile, gave up two goals on seven shots.
In the second period, the Cats put three more pucks past Reekie for an unthinkable 6-0 lead. Drazenovic and Rapac scored power-play goals, Rapac’s off a terrific passing play with Dana Tyrell as the two players stormed in on a two-on-one break.
The Silvertips finally solved Prince George goalie Real Cyr (now 8-1 in the playoffs) at the 5:39 mark of the third when Peter Mueller converted on a power-play chance. Ty Wishart and Jared Walker replied for the Cougars before Taylor Ellington closed out the scoring.
Everettt coach Kevin Constantine said his team got down emotionally after surrendering the first two goals. His Silvertips finished the regular season in first place in the league with a 54-15-1-2 record, good for 111 points. For those keeping count, that’s 37 more points than the Cougars, who went 33-31-3-5 during the regular schedule. Given Everett’s successful season, Constantine had a positive message for his troops after the lambasting.
“(I told them) how proud I was of them,” he said. “That team in the locker room put two banners up in our building this year (one for the division title and the other for the league championship).
“We can sit and second guess all night long about this series. Bottom line is that this team accomplished a lot during the year so we’re real proud of them.”
Constantine said he was not surprised by how well the Cougars played in the series.
“We knew they had a great second half to their season and we knew they just swept a pretty good Kamloops team,” he said. “There’s nothing about that that would end up surprising you. We knew they had talented forwards and those guys did a good job in the series.”
The Cougars had limited success against the Giants this season. But, after knocking out the powerful Silvertips, they have every reason to believe they can win yet another series.
“We played better against them in the second half (of the season),” Schoneck said. “They’re a team that’s going to be rested and they’re going to come after us. But we have to play our game plan. We’ll sit down and formulate the game plan that we’re going to go after them with and we’ll stick to it and hopefully we can keep it going.”
The Cougars last appeared in the Western Conference final in 1999-2000. That year, they lost in five games to the Spokane Chiefs.