Chiefs’ Foe Overcomes Grim Past Ex-Whl Doormat Prince George Advanced By Stunning Portland

The Prince George Cougars are in the Western Hockey League West Division semifinals.

Let’s see if we can put that in perspective.

Until this season, the WHL played 72 games every year in the West to eliminate the Cougars. They had finished last every year since 1989.

The Cougars were a horrific 5-62-2 in 1990. They doubled their win output the next season and were still hopelessly out of it. They won 15 in ‘92 and still finish 23 points behind the expansion Tacoma Rockets.

They changed cities in 1994, leaving Victoria for Prince George, and won 31 games - pretty good, except it took them two years to do it. They won 17 last year, 14 the year before.

This year, the Cougars were the last to nail down their playoff spot, but nail it they did, finishing sixth.

They were in, finally, but they had to play the regular-season champion, the Portland Winter Hawks. But here they are, in the semifinals, and nobody’s laughing.

There were mitigating circumstances in Prince George’s 4-2 series upset of Portland. The Hawks were banged up. Prince George was healthy.

The Cougars dumped Portland with balanced scoring-(12 players scored goals in the series). Goaltender Chris Mason was solid (Portland fired 48 shots at him in Game 2 at home and lost). An unsung hero (Chris Low) stepped up, just like Spokane’s first-round series, in which Mike Haley elevated his game for the Chiefs, who knocked out the favored Kelowna Rockets in six games.

The Chiefs and Rockets have one striking similarity. They both under-achieved through the regular season.

Spokane’s John Cirjak, Joe Cardarelli and Marian Cisar played bigger in the bigger games. Cisar was the only player to score in all six games of the Kelowna series.

Prince George coach Stan Butler predicts a smart game from both sides.

“Spokane has a great power play,” Butler said. “The last thing we want to do is spend time in the box.”

Butler, in his first year, added, “No matter what, we’re the underdog. The pressure is on them. They’re supposed to beat us.”

, DataTimes