Liam Blackburn continued his assault on the Cariboo Cougars record books last weekend.
The 16-year-old forward notched his second hat trick of the B.C. Major Midget League season in Sunday's 8-4 win over the Okanagan Rockets at CN Centre, giving him 26 goals and 67 points this season. Blackburn entered the game tied for the all-time Cougars' lead with Brett Bulmer after putting up a goal and an assist Saturday in the Cats' 5-3 win over the Rockets.
The weekend sweep gave the Cougars (26-7-1) a six-point lead over the Rockets (21-6-5) in the battle for second place in the MML and the tiebreaker in case the teams end the regular season with an equal number of points. The Cougars won the season series with the Rockets three games to one. Okanagan has two games in hand on Cariboo.
For Blackburn the six points and taking over the all-time Cougars points lead, comes a week after he became the team's all-time assist leader. Blackburn also recorded his first B.C. Hockey League goal last Thursday while playing as an affiliate with the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Logan Styler had a five-point game in Sunday's 8-4 win recording two goals and three assists, while Braiden Epp, Stephen Penner and Eli Jarvis had singles for the Cougars. Penner added two assists.
The Rockets received two goals from Brett Mennear and fired 30 shots at Cougars goalie Nathan Warren in the third period but couldn't foil him. Warren faced 50 shots in total in the Cats' net as he picked up his 17th win of the season.
It was the second consecutive weekend the Cougars swept their opponent having earned two wins in Nelson the previous weekend over the Kootenay Ice.
In Saturday's 5-3 win, Brad Morrison and Blackburn staked the Cougars to a 2-0 advantage after the first period but the Rockets responded to tie the game at 2-2 early in the middle frame on goals from Joe Gatesnby and Spencer Hewson. Kirk Hards restored the Cougars' lead with a power-play goal to head into the third period up 3-2.
Penner and Styler added third-period goals for the Cougars. Cariboo was 3 for 4 on the power play and scored a shorthanded marker while limiting the Rockets to 1 for 5 with the man advantage.
The Cougars are in Kamloops this weekend for two games with the Thompson Blazers (6-24-2).
