The bad blood on the ice will likely spill over between a pair of long-standing BC Division rivals during Round Two of the WHL Playoffs.
Fresh off a sweep against the Spokane Chiefs, the Prince George Cougars are chomping at the bit to hit the ice once again as they host the Kelowna Rockets for Games One and Two Friday and Saturday on what should be a pair of raucous crowds at CN Centre.
PG took the season series against the Rockets with a 6-1-0-1 record.
The only two setbacks were a 5-4 road loss on October 13th followed by a 3-2 shootout defeat on January 13th on home ice.
Fans might want to think twice before anointing the Cats into the third round as five of their eight games against Kelowna were decided by one goal.
The Rockets were led by the electrifying trio of Tij Iginla, Andrew Cristall and Gabriel Sturzc.
Iginla, who lit the lamp 47 times during the regular season, had a monster first-round matchup against the Wenatchee Wild – lighting the lamp eight times all while terrorizing Wild goaltender Daniel Hauser.
Cristall, a signed Washington Capitals prospect, led Kelowna with 111 points during the 68-game dress rehearsal and was the primary set-up man for Iginla against Wenatchee – both of which, ended the series with 11 points.
Sturzc, who is a rare European-born captain and property of the Tampa Bay Lighting who had 83 points including 33 goals.
On the backend, Caden Price will log no shortage of minutes for the Rockets.
The Saskatoon product is a third-round pick of the Seattle Kraken who enjoyed a 55-point campaign while manning the blueline.
Despite a 31-point gap in the regular season standings, Cougars head coach Mark Lamb isn’t taking their division rivals for granted.
“They have a lot of pieces that are going to cause us problems.”
“I know one thing, we don’t like them and we intend to keep it that way.”
“We know them well, they know us well”
GM & Head Coach Mark Lamb tees up the second round against Kelowna.#WHLPlayoffs • #ForTheNorth pic.twitter.com/GAC8aUm7lV
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) April 8, 2024
The Cougars on the other hand, go into the series as the favourites, given their plethora of talent, especially up front.
With names like Terik Parascak, Zac Funk, Koehn Ziemmer, Riley Heidt and, Borya Valis it would be easy to see why many people might pick the Cougars to win the series.
Funk led the way with 67 goals and set a franchise, single-season, goals and points record.
Hailed as the Super Rookie, Terik Parascak compiled 105 points in the regular season and was tasked with shutting down Chiefs superstar Berkly Catton, who had a measly four points (all assists) in four games.
Heidt finished third in league scoring with 117 points while Valis has been a point-per-game producer since coming over in a trade from the Regina Pats.
Somehow out of all this firepower, Ondrej Becher continues to fly under the radar while taking games over at both ends of the ice.
The 19-year-old is on a 23-game point streak (which includes the regular season).
With capacity crowds anticipated for Friday and Saturday, Cougars captain Hudson Thornton is looking forward to receiving another emotional boost from the fans.
“When you look around the leagues and see attendance at two or three thousand – we are getting close to six thousand every night it is an advantage for us and the fans are so amazing. To come out and hear the roar of the CN and chants is special.”
Thornton added with how chippy some of the games got against Kelowna in the regular season, keeping composure will be a key to the series.
“I am sure they are going to try and get some of our top players, off their game and if we can be a mature group like we were last time (against Spokane) – if they want to take one, let them take one (a penalty) and we’ll do our thing on the power-play.”
The captain chats ahead of the second round against the Rockets.#WHLPlayoffs • #ForTheNorth pic.twitter.com/dg5N7fbTRf
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) April 8, 2024
As for the goaltending, Lamb is expected to go right back to rookie Josh Ravensbergen in between the pipes, with Ty Young backing him up.
Ravensbergen went 3-0 with a 2.33 goals against average and a .918 save percentage in round one against Spokane. Young played Game Four against Spokane and posted a 2.00 GAA and a .938 save percentage.
“It will stay exactly the way that it’s been for the last two months (Ravensbergen as starter). Rav will get back in there to start the series – we will go day by day and game by game – we are very comfortable with both of those guys.”
Kelowna will counter with Jari Kykkanen – who recorded a solid 4-1-1 mark against Wenatchee with a 2.86 GAA and .911 save percentage.
In the regular season, the 19-year-old went 28-16-2-1 finishing 17th among WHL goalies.
As of 5:00 tonight (Tuesday), Less than 300 tickets remain for Friday’s game (7 PM) while about 500 are left for Saturday (6 PM).
Cole Waldie and Hartley Miller will have the pre-game show on 94.3 The Goat 30 minutes prior to face off.
Is it Friday yet? ⚪️⚪️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/tGCI2W9UPN
— xy – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) April 9, 2024