The Kootenay Ice have long viewed their annual roadtrip to Prince George as one big pothole in their plans to advance in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League standings.
The Cariboo Cougars always seem to play inhospitable hosts.
But this time around, the Ice had plenty to celebrate before they embarked on that 13-hour bus trip home to Cranbrook. Having won just two of 10 games heading to the weekend, the Ice tied the Cougars 4-4 Sunday morning at CN Centre, less than a day after a posting a 6-5 victory over the Cariboo Cats on Saturday. The Ice were more than satisfied with taking three of a possible four points from the Cougars.
"We're trying to get rid of that little problem we've had in years past where teams think it's easy to get the four points from the Kootenay Ice, they're always in the basement, well we don't want to be in the basement anymore and we're making some gains and want to be in the playoffs," said Ice head coach Rob Wright.
"We got good goaltending, we only had five defencemen with our injuries, and our forwards competed very hard, so it was a total team game. They're starting to understand about winning and we're trying to create that atmosphere."
The Cougars were in comeback mode throughout Sunday's game. Cole Morris made it a 1-1 game on a one-timer with four seconds left in the first period, after Sam Weber had opened the scoring in the first minute. Jesse Roach erased a 2-1 Kootenay lead in the second period on a behind-the-net feed from linemate Isaiah Berra but Weber put the Ice ahead again on a Kootenay power play.
After getting robbed by Ice goalie Jason Maihiot in the first period, Steven Jandric's quick wrist shot found the net with 17:16 gone in the second period. The Ice had an answer for that 18 seconds later when Austin Tambellini (a nephew of the former NHL'er Steve), floated a shot in from the point that fooled Cougars goalie Lane Delfs. The tying goal came 1:03 in to the third, a weak backhander on the ice from Cats' forward Thomas Webster that slipped through the legs of Maihiot. The Cougars (5-6-1) had all kinds of chances in the final period, ringing three shots of goalposts, but were forced to settle for the tie.
"Kootenay came up here ready to play and we were not ready [Saturday]," said Cougars head coach Bryan MacLean. [On Sunday] we took two periods off and we finally got down to hockey in the third period, but five out of six periods not doing our jobs is not good enough."
Weber scored two goals Saturday to lead the Ice, who got singles from Ross Armour, Trevor Van Steinburg, Kadrian Klimchuk and Aigne McGeady-Bruce. Jandric had two goals for the Cougars. Roach had a goal and two assists while Cole Morris and Chase Dubois also scored.
The Ice went 3-for-11 on the power play, while the Cats were 2-for-8.
The Jandric-Roach-Berra combination generated a lot of good opportunities on Sunday. Berra joined the team two weeks ago from the triple-A midget ranks.
"[The Ice] really work hard and we're going to have to get better working for 60 minutes and push through the adversity and hopefully we can score goals and win," said Jandric. "Our penalty kill was weak on Saturday but this game it was a lot better."
The Cougars will travel to Victoria this weekend to play the South Island Royals.
