Pull out the WHL schedule and get ready to watch the out of town results.
Scoreboard watching is similar to snakes and ladders; lots of ups and downs.
The Prince George Cougars can find it enjoyable each time the Kamloops Blazers and the Kelowna Rockets lose, particularly if a loss occurs in regulation time.
On the other hand, getting those results from around the league can be demoralizing and ruin one’s night when the Cats see the Blazers and/or Rockets score a victory.
Last month it appeared Prince George was a lock for the B.C. Division title with a double digit lead.
The Cougars are still in the driver’s seat with just over three weeks left in the regular season, but a 2-5-0-2 slide this month has left them with a one point lead over the Blazers and a six point advantage over the Rockets.
Prince George and Kamloops have 10 games remaining while Kelowna has 12 left.
The Blazers are on a 12-2-0-2 run to put them into contention.
The Cougars and Blazers meet four times in March (3rd and 4th at CN Centre, 17th in Kamloops and 18th in P.G. to wrap up the season) but what about the other six games?
The Cats host the lowly Edmonton Oil Kings tonight (Friday) and Saturday.
The Cougars should win both handily against an Oil Kings team that lost this week 7-0 in Kamloops and 10-1 in Kelowna. (Edmonton had a recent 16-game losing streak that included 11-3 and 3-1 setbacks against Prince George)
The other four P.G. games are on the road at Kelowna Wednesday, at Portland (March 8th), at Tri-City (March 10th) and at Spokane (March 11th).
Meanwhile, the Blazers host Kelowna tonight, visit Western Conference leading Everett Saturday, host surging Seattle Wednesday, entertain Victoria March 8th and 10th and host Vancouver on March 11th.
In total, the Cougars play five on the road and five at home while the Blazers have four on the road and six at home.
The Rockets are more of a long-shot despite the games in hand. They have seven remaining on home ice and five on the road.
Kelowna is at Kamloops tonight, at Seattle Saturday and at Spokane Sunday before hosting Prince George on Wednesday.
In addition, the Rockets play at Everett on Friday, March 3rd before hosting Tri-City on the 4th, Victoria on the 7th and 11th, Vancouver on the 10th and 17th and Everett on the 15th.
Kelowna will close at Vancouver on the 18th.
Although the Cougars have lost their last eight games against teams currently in a playoff position, they still hold the upper hand over the Blazers for the following reasons:
# The Cougars currently have more points than the Blazers (81-80).
# P.G. has more wins than Kamloops (38-37).
# The Cougars lead the season series going 2-1-1 against the Blazers while Kamloops is 2-2 against Prince George.
# The Cougars play the Blazers three times at CN Centre and just once in Kamloops at Sandman Centre.
#The Cougars have two so-called easy games left against Edmonton.
The Blazers best arguments for overtaking the Cougars include:
#Kamloops is playing much better hockey at the moment.
#Other than the games in Prince George, the Blazers only have one road contest remaining (at Everett)
The strength of schedule favors Prince George but when all the scoreboard watching is complete, the B.C. Division title will likely be determined when the Cougars and Blazers play that home and home to conclude the regular season.
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The Cariboo Cougars are trying to hold off the fast charging Vancouver NE Chiefs for top spot in the BC Major Midget League.
The advantage is with the Cariboo Cats, who are shooting for a wire to wire first place season.
The Cougars are two points ahead of the Chiefs (61-59) with each team having four games left before playoffs.
Cariboo visits the 6th place Vancouver NW Giants twice this weekend before concluding at home with a double against the third place Okanagan Rockets (March 4th and 5th).
The Chiefs visit the 9th place North Island Silvertips Saturday and Sunday in Nanaimo before wrapping up with a home and home the first weekend of March against the 7th place Valley West Hawks.
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The Prince George Spruce Kings don’t have to worry about the BCHL out of town scoreboard.
They have three regular season games left on the road this weekend that don’t mean a thing.
The Spruce Kings will finish 4th in the Mainland Division and will play the first place overall Wenatchee Wild.
This is the worst possible match-up for the Spruce Kings who went 0-7 in the regular season against Wenatchee while getting outscored 46-13.
First round dates are listed below:
Game 1 Saturday March 4, 7:05 in Wenatchee
Game 2 Sunday March 5, 5:05 in Wenatchee
Game 3 Tuesday March 7, 7:00pm in Prince George
Game 4 Wednesday March 8, 7:00pm in Prince George
Game 5 Friday March 10, 7:00pm in Prince George If necessary
Game 6 Sunday March 12, 8:05 in Wenatchee If necessary
Game 7 Monday March 13, 7:05 in Wenatchee If necessary
From the Quote Rack:
Barry Zito’s first album has now made the Billboard Country Music chart, debuting at #39. 39. What are the odds? The same number as the speed of Zito’s fastball.
Comedy writer Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California www.leftcoastsportsbabe.com
The Atlanta Zoo has named a species of cockroach after Tom Brady. In related news, Falcons fans gave the same name to their local bookies when they had to square up.
Comedy writer TC Chong of Vancouver http://alwaysfunny.com/
A top football prospect for Michigan State was unable to sign his letter of intent because he’s in jail. Sounds like somebody’s ready for the NFL!”
Conan O’Brien of TBS
And in case you missed it:
A new cereal named after ex-NBA star Tim Duncan is called Slam Duncan-O’s. Given Duncan’s general disposition, the first name they ruled out was Cheery-O’s.
Comedy writer RJ Currie www.Sportsdeke.com
Hartley Miller is the sports director and morning news anchor for 94.3 the Goat.
He also is the 94.3 radio color commentator for P.G. Cougars home games.
His column appears Fridays on myprincegeorgenow.com.
Send along a quote, note, or anecdote to [email protected]
Follow him on twitter: @Hartley_Miller
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
