It was a lonely skate to the bench for Cariboo Cougars goalie Aaron Jakubowski when he got the hook after allowing the visiting Fraser Valley Thunderbirds to score the go-ahead goal.
Despite giving up three goals on 10 shots in the second period Sunday, two of which came off deflections, nobody was blaming the 16-year-old goalie for the Cougars' worsening situation. They dug themselves an even deeper hole when Mackenzie Wight hammered in a one-timer just three seconds into a power play -- the T-birds' first shot at Dorrin Luding, who came in to replace Jakubowski.
Despite being outshot 49-20, Fraser Valley hung to beat the Cougars 5-4 to split the weekend B.C. Major Midget Hockey League series at one win apiece. Justin Plett tipped in the winner for the T-birds early in the third period.
"Aaron wasn't playing badly but we weren't awake, we didn't show up to work as hard as the other team did," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. "But we outshot them and I think we outplayed them in every category except faceoffs and goals for. If our team is going to be giving up that many chances, our goaltending needs to be better. Probably three of those goals I can't talk to (the goalies) about, that weren't their fault."
Kyle Davis, Kaelen Anderson, and Matthew Dyck also scored for the T-birds (5-5-4), who struck three times in the second period to take a 4-2 lead. Josh Maser scored twice for the Cougars, while Chase Dubois and Riley Coish also put pucks behind the T-birds' 15-year-old goalie Jordan Naylor.
The Cougars (9-5-2) won the opener 4-1 Saturday night at Kin 1. Chase Dubois, Josh Maser, Chris Jandric and Daine Dubois netted goals the Cats. Davis was the only T-birds shooter to beat Luding, who made nine saves as his team outshot Fraser Valley 26-10.
Coish was effective all weekend at left wing on a line with Chase Dubois and Colton Thomas but the 17-year from Smithers wasn't happy with his team's performance Sunday, which resulted in the end of a five-game winning streak. He says the Cougars will have to be much better at burying their chances to have success this weekend when they host the first-place Vancouver Northwest Giants.
"We were getting lots of shots but we were breaking down in the O-zone and that was giving them lots of odd-men breaks -- our back pressure wasn't where it needed to be," said Coish. "We're only giving up 20 shots a game but there's 10 or 15 good scoring chances and we have to make sure we're doing our jobs in the D-zone."
T-birds manager Darrin Ponak, whose son Nik now plays in the BCHL for the Spruce Kings, said his team was better prepared for Sunday's game and took advantage of its chances.
"We have seven first-year players and this was one of their first big roadtrips and it was key to get them to understand what a good night's sleep is -- it started when they got up this morning and put on their game faces," said Ponak. "We were outshot heavily but they learned that by throwing it at the net, they go in. We were fortunate to get three deflections."
