Two straight for Cyr, Cats
(Sports) Wednesday, 17 October 2007, 22:57 PST
JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor
Welcome home, Mr. Cyr.
Prince George Cougars goaltender Real Cyr, a veteran in his fourth season, appears to have shaken his early-season doldrums with back-to-back first-star showings.
The latest, a 31-save performance on Wednesday, led the Cougars to a 3-1 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. A night before he made 30 saves and helped the Cats to a same-score win over the Saskatoon Blades, but nothing was sweeter than standing on his head in front of roughly 200 supporters from his hometown, nearby Victoire, Sask.
“I was trying not to think about it before the game, or during, but after it’s over now I can soak up all the support I was getting from relatives and fans back home,” said Cyr, who defeated a familiar foe in the opposition net -- Dustin Butler, acquired by the Raiders last month, was the netminder for the Kamloops Blazers in last spring’s Cougars sweep of the first round of the playoffs.
“They all bought their own tickets, so I’m not broke. I might have to buy some people a coffee or a beer in the summer.”
The Cougars fired 24 shots at the goal guarded by Butler in a game witnessed by 2,135 at the Art Hauser Centre. Cyr’s once-grotesque goals-against average is plummeting to earth, and he’s now 3-4-0 with a 4.38 average and .877 save percentage.
“I just remembered back to the days when I felt relaxed playing in this building,” said Cyr. “It was a familiar feeling. I’m just keeping (the slow start) out of my head and looking forward.”
Cyr’s return to form, it is no coincidence, comes at the same time the Cougars (4-7-0-0) have put up their first winning streak of the season. This team is 3-2 away from CN Centre.
“He made three or four big saves, particularly early in the third to keep the game where it was (at 1-1),” said Cougars head coach Drew Schoneck.
“If you were a thief, you’d have quite a time in Victoire because I think the whole town was here for this game.”
But on Wednesday, Cyr was hardly the only star -- though the night didn’t start the way the Cougars wanted as, yet again, they surrendered the first goal.
Raiders blueliner Tomas Voracek wired a shot past Cyr at 6:38 of the first period, but the Cougars managed a potential back-breaker with two seconds left in the first on Alex Poulter’s fifth of the season, the game’s lone power-play goal.
Cougars centre Jan Kupec was leveled by a clean hit from Raiders blueliner Mike Gauthier 1:27 into the game, taken to the dressing room after Evan Fuller came to the rookie’s defence and instigated a scrap with Gauthier. It was a mild surprise that Kupec returned to action later that period, and even more of a boost to the Cougars when he scored his first WHL goal, the game-winner to boot, with 10:55 remaining in the game.
Poulter, named third star, added an empty-net marker with 16 seconds to play.
“Jan had the puck coming down the right-wing wall and made a tactical error in cutting to the middle,” said Schoneck, noting that Kupec has only been back from a shoulder injury for two games.
“One of their bigger defencemen made him pay -- it was a yard sale, and he had a cut lip that required stitches. (Trainer Chris Linder) took him to the room and put Humpty Dumpty together again. (Kupec) came back and played well, scored the game-winner for us, and that shows a lot of character. He could’ve shut it down and taken the rest of the game off -- or the rest of the month, for that matter. He showed big guts in coming back. Instead of folding the tent, he put the poles back up and kept camping.”
Wednesday also marked a successful return to Prince Albert by Schoneck and assistant Wade Klippenstein, who teamed up behind the bench for the Raiders a few years ago. At that time, Klippenstein was the head man and Schoneck was the puck-pusher in practice. Klippenstein’s ties to Prince Albert are tight -- his wife Ashley is from the northern Saskatchewan city.
“It’s always nice to beat a former team,” said Schoneck, whose team killed off all five Raiders’ power plays while going 1-4 with the man-advantage.
“It’s probably nicer for Wade because he was the head coach here and had to move on.
“But it’s bigger for our team -- we played another good hockey game. We had tired legs, but the guys battled through it and they’re starting to see the fruits of their labour with the systems we want to play. It’s effective if they stick to it. We went through some lean weeks to start, but things are starting to come together.”
Those scratched for the Cougars on Wednesday were Dale Hunt (broken fingers), Trevor Bauer (charleyhorse) and 19-year-old defenceman Patrik Magnusson, who sat as a coach’s decision. Jesse Dudas was back in the lineup after serving a one-game league suspension, and Ty Wishart was given an assist on Poulter’s first goal and now has 13 points, including nine helpers, in 11 games, good for second among league defencemen. Wishart was plus-2 in the game.
“(Sitting Magnusson) was a bit of a message,” said Schoneck.
“We expect our guys to play a certain way, and we have extra guys now with Garrett Thiessen playing defence again. Magnusson knows what he has to do, but we have the option of sitting a guy if his play isn’t up to snuff -- that message is for other guys, too.”
The Cougars, now 3-1 on the trip, will get a day off before ending the East Division swing with games in Regina (Friday) and Swift Current (Saturday). The next home action for the Cats is Oct. 26-27 against Chilliwack.