With one flick of the wrist, Michael Araki-Young laid down the law on the Cariboo Cougars Friday afternoon.
His shot from the face-off circle handcuffed goalie Marcus Allen and it was enough to lift the Greater Vancouver Canadians to a 3-2 win in double-overtime over the Cougars in Game 1 of the best-of-three B.C. Hockey Major Midget League championship series at Kin 1.
The goal came 5:35 into the second OT period with the Cougars five seconds away from killing off a cross-checking penalty to Trey Thomas.
Daniel Pearson and Scott Atkinson also scored for the Canadians. Daine Dubois and Devin Sutton were the Cougar goalscorers.
Lukas Shaw made 30 saves to earn the victory. The Cougars outshot the Canadians 32-31.
The Cougars scored first but looked one step behind the Canadians through much of the first period, which ended with the teams tied 1-1. Mason Richey was the instigator of the first goal of the game, 3:45 in, when he raced into the Vancouver end to beat two Canadians to the puck, which he dished off to Thomas standing at the side boards. Thomas spotted Dubois breaking in through the slot and found the tape on his blade for a onetimer.
The Canadians tied it just before the 10-minute mark. Pearson put on a burst of speed to get free of Cougars defenceman Logan Archer and rifled a high shot from a sharp angle in behind goalie Marcus Allen.
Archer was called up from the Coast Inn of the North Cougars Tier 1 midget team to replace defenceman Jonas Harkins, who was a healthy scratch. Considering Archer had played the equivalent of 2 ½ games the previous day as captain of the Tier 1 team, including their 1-0 triple-overtime win over Chilliwack in the provincial final Thursday night, nobody was blaming him for being caught a little flatfooted on the Canadians’ scoring play.
The Canadians came dangerously close to scoring the go-ahead goal five minutes later on a 2-on-1 rush, but Allen had other ideas. The Cougars goalie made the first save off Sasha Mutala and dove across the crease to make a scintillating save on a rapid-fire rebound effort from Noah Kelly.
Outplayed and outshot 16-6 in the opening 20 minutes, the Cougars turned the tables in the second period. They gained some traction from a power play seven minutes into the period and nearly scored. Dubois was robbed by the glove of goalie Shaw, cruising in on a fast-break setup from Thomas. Tyler Maser also came close with a shot from the slot that Shaw saved, but the best chance came with about a minute left in the period. Maser unloaded a wicked snapper that Shaw kicked out onto his doorstep for Sutton. The Cougar winger had the whole left half of the net showing and that’s where his shot went, but Shaw stuck out a piece of his leg to deflect it wide.
The Canadians struck quickly in the third period. Just 48 seconds in, Atkinson was setup in front for a tap-in by linemate Sasha Mutala’s wraparound pass to put the visitors ahead 2-1.
The teams traded chances in an evenly-played third period and the Cougars found a way to tie it with about seven minutes left in regulation time. Darian Long got to his own rebound and took the puck behind the net and fed Sutton in the face-off circle and he made no mistake firing a low shot into the goal.
The Cougars had the better chances in the first (10-minute) overtime session. Myles Mattila nearly ended it but his backhander 90 seconds in went just wide of the Canadians’ net.
The Canadians upset the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs in the three-game semifinal series, taking out a Chiefs team that, like the Cougars, lost just five regular season games.
Game 2 of the series is set for Saturday at 3:15 at Kin 1. If a third game is needed to decide the league championship it would be played Sunday starting at 9:45 a.m.
