A masked man almost stole a playoff victory from the Cariboo Cougars.

Friday afternoon at the Coliseum, the Cougars outshot the South Island Royals 53-19 in Game 1 of a best-of-three quarterfinal series but, instead of blowing out their opponent, recorded a tension-filled 4-3 victory. The tying and winning goals for the Cats came in the last four minutes when they finally squeezed a couple pucks past South Island goaltender Jesse Jenks, who was brilliant between the pipes.

Game 2 of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League series goes today at 1 p.m. at the Coliseum. The first order of business for the Cougars will be to create more traffic in front of the six-foot-two, 180-pound Jenks, who looked even bigger than that to Cariboo shooters in Friday's opener.

"He made the difference in the game," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. "Jesse Jenks did a great job. He has come a long ways this year and played well against us today."

The Cougars led 1-0 after the first period but the Royals had a 3-2 advantage after the second. With Jenks seemingly unbeatable, they stayed in front until the 16:08 mark of the third period when Cariboo defenceman Stephen Penner hammered home a slap shot while skating down the right boards. Then, at 17:22, while Thomas Sercombe of the Royals was serving a delay of game penalty, Penner let go with another blast and Liam Blackburn scored on the rebound. Blackburn's marker stood up as the winner.

On Saturday, see The Citizen and pgcitizen.ca for more.