Cougars Letting Good Times Roll

The Prince George Cougars are playing so well right now that even the bad times are good.

One moment they were deep in overtime Friday night just trying to hold on after losing a two-goal lead in the third period.

The next they were celebrating an improbable 5-4 win in Game One of the Western Hockey League West Division semifinals.

Game Two is tonight at 7:05 in the Arena.

The Chiefs tied it on a controversial third-period goal, then lost it in overtime on the power play, when Prince George’s Brad Mehalko picked up the puck from Spokane’s Joe Cardarelli and put it on the tape of Andrew Luciuk’s stick for the game-winner 16:30 into the extra session.

The win was huge, even considering that in three seasons under coach Mike Babcock in the playoffs Spokane has played as well or better on the road.

“No doubt about it being big,” Prince George coach Stan Butler said. “Any time you can win a game in another team’s building that’s very important in the playoffs.”

The teams fly to Prince George for Game 3 on Monday night. The fourth game of this best-of-five is Tuesday night, if necessary, also in Prince George.

The Chiefs were down 3-1 and 4-2, but with Cardarelli scoring his sixth goal of the playoffs on the power play, the Chiefs pulled to within 4-3 at 14:29 into the third.

It took them only 14 seconds to strike again for their fourth goal, but 5 minutes to have it go up on the scoreboard.

Referee Lowell Dick initially waved off Greg Leeb’s score, but the goal light went on. After conferring with his two linesmen and goal judge Dave Cox, the referee counted it and the game was tied at 4.

“I was told the goal judge said it was an inch over the line,” Butler said. “The linesman told me that he (Cox) is one of the most honest goal judges in the league.”

It was moot after the game, but at that point momentum had swung behind the Chiefs, who finally got the crowd of 5,945 cranked up.

The Chiefs fired the first nine shots on goal in overtime and finished with a 58-34 shot advantage. Prince George goaltender Chris Mason swept aside 54 shots and was named the game’s first star in the press box poll.

“He was my pick for star of the game as well,” Butler said.

The key play was hatched by Mehalko, the Cougars’ 19-year-old right wing.

“I don’t know if he (Cardarelli) bobbled it or I stole it, but the puck squirted out in our end, I jumped on it and we got away two on one,” said Mehalko, as the upstart Cougars, the No. 6 seed in the WHL West, moved to within two wins of advancing to the division finals.

“I don’t know where their D-men were. There was one (Spokane’s Hugh Hamilton) back there, but we were fortunate enough to score the goal.”

Chris Low scored the first goal and Peter Roed added three more as PG stayed a jump up on the Chiefs through two periods.

John Cirjak and Marian Cisar countered for the Chiefs - Cisar with his fifth goal of the postseason. Cisar has scored in 20 straight games.

When Joel Kwiatkowski was sent off for checking Spokane’s Trent Whitfield from behind in overtime, it put the Chiefs on the power play - and seemed enough to push Prince George over the edge.

The Cougars were feeling the heat, Butler said.

“There’s no doubt we were on the ropes a bit,” he said. “They’re a good team with a killer instinct. They were coming at us pretty hard. Chris (Mason) held us in there and when we got the opportunity - we only had one opportunity (in OT) - we took advantage of it.”

Mehalko added, “With all the adversity we faced, I give my teammates all the credit for playing with character.”

Babcock said, “Their goaltender was outstanding and their defense did a good job of keeping us to the outside. But as the game went on, I thought the rink was tiled and we had taken the game over.”

Cougars 5, Chiefs 4 (OT)

Prince George 1 1 2 1 - 5

Spokane 0 1 3 0 - 4

First period- 1, Prince George, Low 2 (Smith, McKay) 2:51. Key penalties - Mehalko, PG, :52; Schutz, Spo, 1:42; Reich, Spo, 6:54; Walterson, PG, 10:49; McKay, PG, 12:22; Hamilton, Spo, 14:39.

Second period- 2, Spokane, Cirjak 2 (Haley, Ference) 10:37. 3, Prince George, Roed 1 (Brewer, Petrovicky) 13:47 (pp). Key penalties - McKay, PG, 8:09; Petrovicky, PG, 11:32; Cisar, Spo, 12:35; Hancock, PG, 15:31.

Third period- 4, Prince George, Roed 2 (Tippler) 6:03. 5, Spokane, Cisar 5 (Jones) 7:52. 6, Prince George, Roed 3 (Kwiatkowski, Smith) 8:40. 7, Spokane, Cardarelli 6 (Hamilton, Whitfield) 14:29 (pp). 8, Spokane, Leeb 3 (Whitfield, Reich) 14:43. Key penalties - Kwiatkowski, PG, 14:06.

Overtime- 5, Prince George, Luciuk 3 (Mehalko) 16:30 (sh). Key penalties - Mason, PG, delay; Kwiatkowski, PG, 15:45.

Power plays-Prince George 1 of 4. Spokane 1 of 9. Saves- Mason, PG, 8-18-15-13-54. Miller, Spo, 7-8-7-7-29.

A - 5,945.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo