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TwoBits
01-07-2008, 07:44 AM
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111201&Itemid=564


Three losses for Cougars, playoffs all but gone
(Sports) Sunday, 06 January 2008, 22:47 PST
JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor
The Prince George Cougars have suffered embarrassing losses this season, but Sunday's takes the cake.

The Cougars finished their three-game weekend -- point-less, and pointless -- with a debilitating road loss to the worst team in the WHL. The Portland Winter Hawks scored two goals in a 35-second span in the second period and captured a 3-1 victory.

There are so many reasons Sunday's loss was an embarrassment.

First, the Hawks came into the game with just seven victories, and only five in 21 contests at home.

Second, any Cougars players hoping to showcase themselves for a deal to another club by Thursday's trade deadline didn't help their own market value. That, it seems clear, is going down, down, down.

Third, the winning goaltender for the Hawks was ex-Cougar and Spruce King Jordan White, whose rights were released by the Cougars during the off-season. White, remembered in these parts for his 90-save performance in last spring's Royal Bank Cup, outplayed Prince George overager Real Cyr, who was guilty of three soft goals against.

If you thought the 7-2 home-ice loss to Kamloops on Dec. 14 was the low point of this dismal season, think again.

"Losing to Portland certainly isn't something we're happy about," said head coach Drew Schoneck, whose team will have a day off today after busing home through the night.

"We had opportunities to win. I look back to Friday's (loss in Kelowna) when we were gawd-awful in every area against a good hockey team, but we were in this hockey game and had chances but couldn't put the puck in the net. Bottom line, their goaltender outplayed our goalie. That was the difference."

The Cougars had a chance to make up ground in the Western Conference playoff chase because the suddenly re-tooled Kamloops Blazers capitulated to the Vancouver Giants in an 8-1 drubbing at Pacific Coliseum. The combination leaves the Cougars 13 points in arrears of the Blazers and Seattle Thunderbirds for the last playoff spot.

The Hawks? They are 23 points out of a post-season berth.

"We were hoping to get two out of three games on this trip," said Schoneck, whose team has won just four of its past 23 games.

"We have to find a way to win some of these hockey games. With what's going on in Kamloops... they traded away a lot of their team, so I still think the playoff race is wide open."

The Cougars (13-27-1-0) lost 6-0 in Kelowna on Friday -- surprisingly, perhaps, the first and only time the Cats have been held without a goal all season. On Saturday, the Cougars took a 2-0 lead in Chilliwack on goals by Dana Tyrell and Evan Fuller, only to have the Bruins storm back with four unanswered goals in a 4-2 victory. Jaden Potter and Mark Santorelli both had a pair of goals, and Santorelli added two assists.

On Sunday, White was named first star after he made 41 saves for the Hawks (8-31-0-1), while Cyr faced 40 shots. Fuller gave the Cats a 1-0 lead before Viktor Sjodin, on a power play, and Tristan King turned the game around. King added insurance in the third period.

Perhaps, all it took was a slip by play-by-play voice Ron St. Clair early in Sunday's game to foreshadow what was to come in Portland.

"Poulter, from the far hash pipe..." St. Clair quickly corrected himself to "hash marks," but the tone was set -- this season is quickly going up in smoke.

The Cougars won't play another game until after Thursday's deal deadline, and the Prince George roster is expected to be notably different when the Kelowna Rockets arrive for a weekend doubleheader. The Friday and Saturday games both start at 7 p.m