When Adam Beukeboom joined the Prince George Cougars just before the January roster deadline, the jury was out whether he could step up his game and win at the Western Hockey League level.
He certainly has the Swift Current Broncos convinced he can get the job done. Saturday night in Swift Current, Beukeboom was nearly flawless, stopping 38 of 40 shots, and his teammates used that as incentive to lay a 6-2 licking on the Broncos to end their six-game road trip with their fourth straight victory.
You have to dig deep into the history of the Cougars to find out the last time they won four in a row. It happened on Dec. 1, 2010, back when Beukeboom was a 16-year-old junior A rookie out of Sundre, Alta., still trying to find steady employment as a backup goalie for the Calgary Mustangs.
Now a 19-year-old veteran, Beukeboom kept the Cougars in the game Saturday when they were sagging under the weight of a speedy Broncos team trying to maintain its grip on first place in the East Division.
Outshot 7-2 in the first seven minutes and 22-13 in the opening period, the Cougars bent -- allowing the first goal off the stick of Cody Cave just 1:40 into the game -- but thanks to Beukeboom they didn't break, scoring the next three goals to make up for their sluggish beginning.
"Full credit goes to Adam, he's been practicing and when he was given the opportunity today he ran with it," said Cougars assistant coach Jason Becker. "He made some key saves in that first period to keep it at one and then obviously when we got the lead he nailed it down, swallowing up a lot of rebounds."
Klarc Wilson and Troy Bourke gave the Cats the lead, each on their way to two-goal games, and Zach Pochiro added to the total. The Broncos responded by removing starting goalie Eetu Laurikainen after he allowed three goals on 13 shots and not long after that, Nathan Burns cut it close just before the intermission. But the Cougars found a way to stretch their lead with just 1.9 seconds left in the second period when Bourke batted in the rebound of a Marc McNulty point shot.
The backbreaker for the Broncos came with seven minutes gone in the third period. While shorthanded, the Cougars came close on a 2-on-1 chance and Jansen Harkins ended up getting flattened by Broncos defenceman Dillon Heatherington. Harkins was face down on the ice while the play continued and Beukeboom was forced to kick out a couple of tough saves before Harkins got to the bench. Just as the penalty ended, Tyler Mrkonjic forced a turnover and sprung Jordan Tkatch free on a breakaway and he ripped the puck in over the glove of Landon Bow for a 5-2 lead. Wilson capped the scoring less than a minute later with a shot off Bow's goal stick.
Pochiro's goal was a result of some hard work in the corners from linemates Brett Roulston and Aaron Macklin, who made it a habit to get in the Broncos' shooting lanes and block shots.
The loss was only the sixth of the season for the Broncos on home ice as their record dropped to 26-19-2-6. For the Cougars, now 22-26-2-5, Saturday's win was by far the most satisfying of the 10-day trip.
"Any time you're on the road for as long as we are, to win four in a row and win the last one against the top team in the East Division, against a team that has been hot lately, and you get the effort from the guys that we had tonight, there's not much more you can say about it," said Becker.
"Minus the first seven or eight minutes, this was probably our best 43 minutes of the roadtrip. We did a great job of containing their speed."
The Cougars got nothing but bad news Saturday from the out-of-town scoreboard. The Tri-City Americans continued their winning ways, beating Red Deer 4-2 in Alberta. The Americans now have seven wins and 15 points in their last 10 games. The Everett Silvertips also refused to co-operate with the Cougars, defeating the Chiefs 5-4 in overtime in Spokane to end a six-game losing streak. The Cougars now trail eighth-place Tri-City by six points and are 10 points behind seventh-place Everett with 18 games left to play. Both have two games in hand over Prince George.
