Prince George Pushes Chiefs To The Brink Mason’s Work In Goal Puts Spokane In Playoff Hole

The defining moment of the Prince George Cougars’ 4-2 win over the Spokane Chiefs on Saturday night came down to a goaltender and a goalscorer on opposite sides who played midget hockey together in Red Deer, Alberta.

For the defense, Prince George goalie Chris Mason.

From the other side of the firing line, left wing Greg Leeb of Spokane.

In the dying minute before 7,213 in the Arena, the Chiefs fired one of their 43 shots on goal. The rebound popped out hard, right back to Leeb, and Game 2 of the Western Hockey League West Division semifinals rode on the accuracy of his return.

Leeb’s shot was right on but Mason - peering through the flying humanity in front of him with 20 seconds left - got the glove down in time to do what he’s done on consecutive nights here.

He turned opportunity into frustration.

“The rebound came out real quick and he was standing right there,” said Mason, who brushed away 41 shots to put the Cougars up two games to none in this best-of-five series. “It (the save) was just kind of of a bing-bang sort of reaction.”

The two are back at it Monday night in Prince George.

No sixth-place team out of the regular season has played for the division championship. Prince George is one win away from becoming the first.

“We’re frustrating them,” the 19-year-old Mason said. “We’re playing a simple game - dumping the puck out, not doing anything fancy, just trying to make them do the work.”

And make the mistakes.

Somebody called it rope-a-dope hockey.

It fits. Like Muhammad Ali two decades before him, Mason takes shot after shot until the other guy stumbles. That’s a little simplistic but the Cougars - who dropped six of eight regular-season games to Spokane - are to the surprise of all moving in for the kill.

“The confidence is huge right now,” said Peter Roed, who tied the game at 7:46 of the first period with his fourth goal of this series.

“We wanted to come down and get one (of the first two games). We just have to keep our heads and work just as hard at home.”

Marian Cisar stretched his scoring streak to 21 straight with his sixth playoff goal a minute into the game to put the Chiefs up 1-0.

But Roed - who failed to score in PG’s six-game series with Portland - continued to torment the Chiefs, feeding Travis Tipler for the go-ahead goal with 34 seconds left in the first period.

Hugh Hamilton nailed his first playoff goal 31 seconds into the second 20-minute set with a shot from the point, but again the Cougars had a reply - Quinn Hancock’s first postseason goal halfway into the period.

Hancock put the Chiefs down 3-2. It was that way until the final second, when Jarrett Smith scored into an empty net.

“There’s no sense worrying about it,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “We’re going to have to be prepared to weather the storm for a few minutes when we get into their rink, and then get on with the plan.

“They have a lot of momentum. Their goaltender has been excellent and they’re doing a good job around him. They did a good job of getting in the way of the puck - they blocked lots of shots.”

Cougars 4, Chiefs 2

Prince George 2 1 1 - 4

Spokane 1 1 0 - 2

First period-1, Spokane, Cisar 6 (Jones, Schutz) 1:02. 2, Prince George, Roed 4 (Chara, Petrovicky) 7:46. 3, Prince George, Tippler 3 (Roed, Petrovicky) 19:26. Key penalties - Chara, PG, 2:57.

Second period-4, Spokane, Hamilton 1 (Whitfield) :31. 5, Prince George, Hancock 1 (Brewer, Luciuk) 10:01. Key penalties - Dewaele, Spo, 6:55.

Third period-6, Prince George, Smith (Mehalko) 19:59 (empty net).

Power plays-Prince George 0 of 1. Spokane 0 of 1. Saves- Mason, Prince George, 16-9-16-41. Miller, Spokane, 7-9-6-22.

A- 7,213

, DataTimes