Cats claw back but lose yet again
(Sports) Wednesday, 03 October 2007, 04:00 PST
JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor
The team that wasn’t supposed to score is generating scoring chances.
Converting those clean looks, particularly early in games, that’s another story.
The Prince George Cougars were at their opportunistic best on Tuesday night, but still ended up dropping a 5-2 decision to the Tri-City Americans at atmosphere-free CN Centre.
The Cougars, now 0-4 and looking to find their first lead of the season, get a chance at redemption tonight (7 p.m.). The Americans, a mild surprise at 5-0 to start the year, won’t be rolling over in the second game of the doubleheader, not with a chance to extend their perfect start.
“There hasn’t been a lot of respect shown toward our organization, or our players, and this year we were picked 19th (out of 22 teams in the preseason poll),” said Prince George product Don Nachbaur, the veteran coach of the Americans.
“Our kids looked at that and said they wanted to do something about that. God bless them that they’re on the right path right now.”
WHL scoring leader Kruise Reddick (four goals, 12 points) scored two goals for the Americans, the opener and the key third-period marker that stopped a Cougar uprising. Colton Yellow Horn, on a short-handed two-on-one, Tyler Schmidt and Shaun Vey, into an empty net, chipped in with the other Tri-City goals.
The Cougars, who trailed 1-0 and 3-0 at the intermissions, got last-stanza goals from Ty Wishart and Corey Tyrell seven minutes apart to poke a sharp stick into the announced crowd of 2,432, one of the smallest in franchise history.
The best player on the ice, with apologies to Yellow Horn, was Tri-City goaltender Chet Pickard, who has been handed the unenviable task of replacing Carey Price as the Americans’ last line of defence. Pickard, an 18-year-old out of Winnipeg who paid close attention to Price last season, stopped 39 shots. He made key saves in the third period, but his most important work came early when the Cougars were pressing hard for the first goal.
“That wasn’t our best game tonight, but at the same time I think Prince George did some things that took us out of our rhythm,” said Nachbaur.
“We won the hockey game based on Chet Pickard’s play. He was outstanding -- we haven’t given up 41 shots in a game this year, so to Prince George’s credit they did some things we were fortunate to get away with.”
Tommy Tartaglione made his first start as a Cougar, and the entertaining 19-year-old netminder -- he’s a wanderer, by golly -- finished with 27 saves. The Cats were led, without question, by forward Dana Tyrell, who set the tone early by taking pucks directly to the net. Fruitlessly, mind you.
It’s getting frustrating for the youngish Cougars, outscored 23-10 through four games, to keep falling behind and having to claw their way out of a hole.
“It plays on you, but I thought we got behind in penalties and other than that it was probably our most complete game this season,” said Prince George centre Chad Hohmann, who picked up his first point of the season when he assisted on Corey Tyrell’s goal.
“We’re working hard, it just seems like nothing’s going in. The positive is that it’s going to come -- we can’t get discouraged. It’ll happen for us if we keep working. We have to play a team game, a team effort, on defence. It’s not just the defence and goalies that are letting other teams score.”
The Cougars cooled their effort on the power play, seeming to pace themselves with an extra skater instead of picking up the tempo. Prince George was 1-8 with the man advantage, not generating near as much as they did even strength.
You could swap the team nicknames -- it should be the Cougars, with five U.S.-bred players, carrying the ‘Americans’ tag. The so-called Americans have but two Yankees on the roster.
KITTY LITTER: Final shots were 41-32 for the home club... Tri-City was 1-5 on the power play... C Jan Kupec missed his first game with a separated shoulder that could hold him out for up to six weeks. D Trevor Bauer and C Marcus Watson were the healthy scratches... Seattle sent former first-round pick C Cody Hanson, 17, to his hometown Regina Pats on Tuesday for a secretive 2009 bantam draft choice... The Vancouver Giants got word that C Mario Bliznak is being sent back for another year of junior... Kelowna has an overager abundance to deal with after adding forward Brody Leavold from Swift Current on Tuesday. D Lyon Messier, son of hall-of-famer Mark, is the likely odd-man out.
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Different "Keeper", Same Results
Originally Posted by old_time_hockey
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