The road to the Telus Cup got a little bit shorter Friday for the Cariboo Cougars.
They notched their first victory of the 2015 B.C. Major Midget Hockey League playoffs, a 3-1 triumph over the visiting Fraser Valley Thunderbirds at Kin 1.
Keith Redden, Justin Almeida and Steven Jandric took care of the scoring for the home team and Griffen Outhouse did the rest, blocking 28 shots between the pipes for the Cougars. Brett Clayton was the lone marksman for the T-birds.
Redden opened the scoring 16 minutes into the game, picking the short side on goalie Paul Tucek, who was caught with his leg not tight to the post. Alex Furlan came within a whisker of tying it with less than minute left in the period but Outhouse got just enough of his shot to keep the puck from sliding across the line behind him.
The T-birds opened the second period on the power play and off the opening face-off Jandric made an alert play to take the puck just inside the blueline and chipped it ahead to Almeida, who got behind the defence and scored on a backhand deke.
Jandric's nose for the net led to his first goal of the playoffs. He was parked in a perfect spot all alone in front of the T-birds' net just as Chase DuBois centred the puck through the crease from deep in the offensive zone. Jandric's tap-in at 11:02 made it 3-0.
Fraser Valley finally got one past Outhouse, connecting on a power play 13:42 into the third period. Clayton got his stick on a centring pass from Brice Sharp. Shots ended up 29-28 in the Cougars' favour.
The Cougars had to consider themselves fortunate to be ahead 1-0 heading into the first intermission. The Thunderbirds probably deserved to be ahead by a couple after 20 minutes. They stormed the Cougars' net the first two shifts and Outhouse kept it scoreless with three quality saves, setting the tone for a solid outing.
Sharp nailed the goalpost at the 10-minute mark. At that point the Cougars had already discarded their pre-game jitters and were getting chances of their own.
LOOSE PUCKS: Alex Hinsche backed up Outhouse n the absence of Dorrin Luding, who injured his ankle a few weeks ago in a game in Vancouver... Game 2 is set for today at 1 p.m. If the T-birds win, that would force Game 3 Sunday at 10 a.m.
