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Sput
10-13-2006, 09:07 AM
Courtesy of :
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/

Friday, October 13, 2006
Road trip welcomed by Cats
by JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor

After losing four in a row at home, you can excuse the Prince George Cougars for believing this is a great time for the rubber to meet the road.

After what the fans watched the last two home games in particular, a pair of shutouts by visiting teams, they’re likely saying stay there until you get things figured out.

The Cats, struggling at 2-4-0-1 and riding a four-game losing streak, open a six-game road swing tonight in Medicine Hat. By the time the next nine days are complete, the Cougars will have played in Lethbridge (Saturday), Cranbrook (Sunday, against the Kootenay Ice), Wednesday (Kelowna) and a road doubleheader in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans.

“It’s not too often you beg for a 10-day road trip, but I think right now it will be a great thing for our hockey club,” said captain Eric Hunter, whose struggles mirror the team’s woes.

“We have some relatively new faces in our dressing room and we’ve made some changes over the last little while. I’m sure there are going to be more. I think (the road trip) is perfect timing. We’ll be playing in some tough buildings and it will be hard for us, but at the same time to get some time with the guys will help us figure out what the problem is.”

The Cougars have one road win this season, that coming against the Chilliwack Bruins. The Cougars are 2-4-0-1, but there are two excuses at this point — ample injury problems have struck again, and three of those seven games have come against the Vancouver Giants, the top-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League.

“To some degree it’s a good time to go out on the road,” admitted coach Mike Vandekamp, “but we would’ve liked to have won a game (Tuesday) so we’d have something positive to take out on the road because it’s tough out there, particularly in some of the rinks we’re heading to.

“It’s good to get out on the road again. It’s been a negative stretch of hockey for us, but it’s early in the season and we have some building to do. We have to get some more guys into the lineup, and try to have a lineup that’s similar from day-to-day. We have to get more guys back so we can do that.”

Centre Dan Gendur (sprained ankle, two weeks) didn’t make the trip, remaining behind to continue physiotherapy. The rest of the injured bodies — Chris Vanduynhoven (wrist, day-to-day), Jesse Dudas (knuckle, two weeks), Vladimir Mihalik (shoulder, one week) — hopped on the bus.

Vandekamp conceded that leadership is a problem for this team, and will have to be corrected.

“Leadership is clearly by example, and right now we have guys who are, at times, trying to take the bull by the horns on their own agenda, and that’s never successful in a team sport,” said Vandekamp.

“You see the end result. It snowballs. You get down a couple goals and someone tries to take the bull by the horns and it leads to a turnover and you’re back in your own end. Those are tough lessons to learn, and it seems right now that if it can go wrong, it will for us. Until we gel together as a team and decide to play hard together as a team, that will continue to happen.”