The Vancouver Northeast Chiefs proved why they led the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League regular season in scoring Friday night.
The visiting Chiefs rallied from a two-goal deficit and scored three unanswered goals in the second period and held on for a 5-3 win against the Cariboo Cougars in Game 1 of the BCMMHL championship series at Kin 1.
In a game that was back and forth with both teams trading scoring chances, Cougar forward Colton Thomas opened the scoring at the 5:29 mark of the first period on the power play for an early 1-0 lead for the host squad.
Cat forward Mitchell Williams padded the Cougars lead to 2-0 at the 5:45 mark of the second.
After a lacklustre first period where the Chiefs were outshot 8-3, the Richmond-based team turned it around in the second period when they found themselves trailing 2-0.
With Cougars defenceman Conor MacEachern serving a four-minute minor penalty for spearing, the Chiefs went to work on the power play.
First forward Kyle Johnson scored 45 seconds into the man-advantage and Sam Chung tied the game 20 seconds later.
The Chiefs took the lead with just a little more than five minutes left in the second period when Jeffrey Wong's shot from the point through a screen got past Cougars netminder Griffen Outhouse.
The Chiefs outshot the Cougars 14-5 in the second.
Forward Caleb Fantillo gave the Chiefs a 4-2 lead 1:52 into the third period.
Cougar captain Austin Gray cut the Chiefs lead to one at the 4:28 mark, but Fantillo, the Chiefs' leading scorer in the regular season, restored the Chiefs' two-goal lead 65 seconds later.
The Cougars pulled Outhouse with less than two minutes remaining in the game for an extra attacker, but they couldn't convert their scoring chances.
Chiefs netminder Liam McCloskey earned the win, turning aside 26 of 29 shots, while Outhouse stopped 19 of 24 shots.
Game 2 of the series at Kin 1 is today at 1:30 p.m., while Game 3, if necessary is Sunday at 10 a.m. at Kin 1.
