From tailgate parties to social media engagement to good old-fashioned word of mouth, the Prince George Cougars seem to once again be the talk of the town.
The team is hosting the first two games of an opening-round playoff series for the first time since 2017, welcoming the Tri-City Americans to a sea of white tomorrow (Friday) night followed by game two on Saturday.
“The word that comes to my mind is electricity, I think we are going to have it,” said Cole Waldie, the Cougars’ Director of Broadcasting, Communications and Public Relations.
“For the fans that have seen the Cougars throughout their entirety, there has been the sea of white – the whiteout – it is so intimidating and so cool to see that,” he added.
Every fan who goes to tomorrow’s game will receive a white rally towel, and everyone in attendance is being encouraged to wear white – jerseys or otherwise.
“There is nothing like a whiteout in the playoffs, it brings an entertaining atmosphere and I think we are going to bring that for the entire playoffs,” Waldie said.
The Cougars held a tailgate party last night (Wednesday) where fans could meet the team, get autographs, have some barbeque and buy tickets for the playoffs.
Both Waldie and Ryan Mitchell, who was there on behalf of Vista Radio, figured there were between 200-300 people that cycled through, and that the lot was “packed.”
Part of that Waldie attributes to the buzz around town is the Cougars’ recent success – going 18-3-2-1 from February onward.
“I think those two wins against Kamloops were really good, and really eye opening,” he said.
Prince George swept the division-leading Kamloops Blazers in a home-and-home to end the season, winning 7-2 against the Blazers’ full roster in Kamloops and 3-2 in a shootout versus a weaker Blazers roster in Prince George.
Despite being badly outshot at home, the shootout in front of the sold-out crowd is all fans have been talking about since.
And some love for Koehn Ziemmer, who would've had the nicest shootout goal ANY other night 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Gg81ZtmVNX
— x – Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) March 26, 2023
Koehn Ziemmer’s goal was nice, but Chase Wheatcroft’s was nicer – going viral in Prince George and even being shared nationally by TSN’s BarDown.
Chase Wheatcroft ended off his last regular season game with this STUNNER!🥶
🎥: @PGCougars
— BarDown (@BarDown) March 26, 2023
The Cougars media team confirmed the same video on their Facebook page has reached over 400,000 people.
The buzz is translating into ticket sales.
Waldie told My PG Now that both game one and two have sold over 3,000 of 6,000 possible tickets as of this morning.
Factoring in the busy sales days directly before these games and walk-up tickets, it would not be a shock to the team or fans to see sold-out crowds throughout the duration of playoffs.
“The city buzzing has really rubbed off on the players in a really positive way… they’re really excited. It is really nice to see the buzz in town, we haven’t even played a playoff game yet, it is so exciting,” Waldie said.
“These kids have put in so much all season long, it is one of the better seasons we have seen from the Cougars and I think fans have done a really good job acknowledging that… the players will say having a full building in the CN Centre – there is nothing like that in the entire WHL.”