Put the puck to the net and good things will happen.
Matthew Hermary tried the indirect approach to that philosophy, blasting a shot that ricocheted into the goal off the shinpad of Cariboo Cougars forward Cole Morris late in the third period Sunday, and it made all the difference.
That was the gamewinner as Hermany's Vancouver Northeast Chiefs defeated the host Cariboo Cougars 5-3 at the Coliseum, salvaging a split in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League series.
"I was just trying to get it to the net and everything fell into place, it just worked perfectly," said Hermary, a 16-year-old from Coquitlam, who now has nine goals and 21 points in 28 games.
"I saw there was an opening and I was just hoping for the best. The team came to play today and I'm glad we got that right at the end."
Chiefs captain Connor Burk added an empty-netter, his second of the game, spoiling the Cougars' attempt to salvage a point Sunday, having defeated the Chiefs 5-3 on Saturday.
The Chiefs blew a 3-1 lead Sunday in the third period, allowing Chase Dubois to score two goals early in the period. The Cougars dominated positional play in the later stages of the game but didn't get a lot of quality chances on goalie Adam Derochie.
Kris Zlomislic and Lucas Johansen also scored for the Chiefs. Jesse Roach got the Cougars's offense kickstarted with a second-period power-play goal, after the Cats had killed off a lengthy two-man disadvantage.
Shots were 30-28 in the Cougars' favour.
Vancouver Northeast (14-10-4) remained fourth in the standings, eight points ahead of the sixth-place Cougars (11-15-2).
"The Chiefs came with a lot more jump than they did [Saturday] and they got a couple breaks in the third period and the puck ends up in our net and we end up losing, but we could have won it just as easily," said Cougars head coach Bryan McLean.
"I really liked our penalty killing in both games and we did a good job of being disciplined and not going to the box much. We limited it to penalties that were, for the most part, not bad penalties."
McLean was pleased to see his 15-year-old left winger Mitch Williams have a breakout game offensively with two goals and two assists Saturday. The Prince George native came into the weekend with a total of two assists in his previous 26 games.
"That was exciting, I was really happy to finally get my first goal in the BCMMHL and to top it off with another goal and two assists and win the game was just way better," said the five-foot-11, 180-pound Williams. "It's a new line [matched with Dallas Goodwin and Thomas Webster] and I was just feeling good and my legs were going fast. It's awesome being a first-year in this league. It's a much faster game and I'm happy being here."
Goodwin also scored twice Saturday and Colton Thomas collected a single. Burk, with two goals, and Johansen accounted for the Chiefs' scoring.
