Heading into the third period with a one goal lead over the Vancouver Thunderbirds, just 20 minutes away from a third consecutive midget Tier 1 provincial hockey championship, the Prince George Coast Inn of the North Cougars couldn’t help but feel good about what they’d accomplished.
How quickly it all unravelled on the Cougars Friday night in Fort St. John.
The Thunderbirds took a 3-2 lead in the first minute of the final period on goals from Saul Khalifa and Jacob Letwin and added an empty-netter to seal a 4-2 win.
It was a heartbreaker for the young Cougars’ squad, which went to the seven-team tournament loaded with first-year midget players, in stark contrast to the makeup of their final opponents.
“That Vancouver T-birds team was a very good team, they had 14 17-year-olds on the team and some very skilled players, one who had played major midget last year and he was on the ice every second shift,” said Cougars head coach Brian Toll.
“That being said, our boys hung in there and I was very proud of them. I mean, we had nine 15-year-olds on that team and for them to go out and compete the way they did, I’m just very proud of them.”
Toll said his players fed off the energy of the crowd in Fort St. John when they played the Northeast Trackers in the feature game on the first day of the tournament. Connor Bowie, who played seven games in the Western Hockey League this season for n the Prince George Cougars, suited up for the Trackers and had one assist in their 5-4 loss to Prince George.
“They have a good team and Bowie was very strong,” said Toll. “We knew about him, of course, and we had some guys follow him around pretty close and it worked very well. The boys did very well keeping him contained.”
Bowie had one goal for the Tracker in their 7-0 win over East Kootenay in the bronze-medal game.
On the day of the final Friday, the Cougars had to ply Saanich in their final round-robin game in the morning. They built a 4-0 lead and let off the accelerator, saving themselves for the final, and Saanich came back with four goals to tie the Cougars 4-4.
The Cougars finished with a 4-1-2 record. Kevin Craig played five of the seven games in goal for the Cougars, with Dawson Frankforth as the backup.
The Cougars tied Vancouver 3-3 in their first game.
In the final, Jaden French staked the Cougars to an early lead just 14 seconds into the game. The Thunderbirds tied it before the period ended but Alex Ochitwa restored the Prince George lead with the only goal of the second period.
“They had the majority of the play, they outshot us something like 38-24 and the shots were 13-6 in the first period,” said Toll. “The boys were pumped going into the third, and (the T-birds) went out there and they scored a goal off the rush, which they like to do. I changed the lines and the next line that went out there had been doing a great job for us but a rebound came out and the guy was in the right place at the right time and all of sudden it was 3-2.
“They scored those goals early and we had lots of good chances during the rest of the third but just couldn’t put it in the net.”
James Lalikeas assisted on both Prince George goals.
Toll has been asked by Cariboo Cougars major midget general manager Trevor Sprague to coach the Cariboo Cougars 15-year-olds, a new regional team made up exclusively of first-year midget-aged players. They will compete in a provincial league against the affiliated 15-year-old squads of the other B.C. Hockey Major Midget League teams.
In other provincial hockey results, the two Prince George female teams wrapped up their seasons over the weekend.
The Western Industrial Contracting bantam Cougars finished fourth with a 2-3-0 record in Vancouver. The Cougars finished up with a 15-0 win over North East, then lost 5-4 to North Shore. Langley defeated North Shore 2-1 in the final.
At the peewee female tournament in Dawson Creek, the Prince George Scotiabank Cougars ended up with a 0-5 record. In their final two games they lost to Surrey 14-1 and North East 4-3. Surrey played Tri-Cities in the final Sunday night.
