After filling their boots with gold the previous night, the Cariboo Cougars picked a bad time to flaunt their riches.
They took a walk down a dark alley Sunday and got mugged by the Greater Vancouver Canadians.
By the time they came to their senses in the third period at CN Centre the Cougars were down by two goals. Their late flurry of activity in the Vancouver end led to a pair of quick goals to tie it up and the Cougars looked poised to take a lead with a late power-play. But forward Tyson Lin finished off a blatant act of thievery to emerge as the hero for the Canadians in a 3-2 win.
Lin collected a loose puck and took off on a shorthanded breakaway after teammate Michael Araki-Young stole the puck at the far blueline from defenceman Joel Patsey. Lin whistled a low shot in past Cougars goalie Dorrin Luding for the game-winner with 1:45 left in the third period.
"We sat in our hotel for the day Saturday and today they woke up after six or seven hours sleep and I wasn't sure what they were going to come out with, but they showed up and stepped up their game," said Canadians head coach Phil Alalouf. "The Cougars have firepower and they buried (Saturday) night when they had the chance. (Goalie Mateo Paler) Chow was a big difference for us in this game. It was a character win."
Having crushed the Canadians 10-2 on Saturday, the Cougars had trouble finding their ammo in the rematch. They played more than two-thirds of Sunday's game without getting a sniff on the scoresheet.
The Canadians took full advantage, jumping ahead 2-0 on a first-period power-play goal from Michael Matson and an even-strength breakaway effort from Thomas Von Schoenberg.
Looking for their first back-to-back wins of the season, the Cougars gained some momentum on a brief power play and put together a handful of quality chances to start the third period. Chase Dubois got the Cougars started with a goalmouth move and Riley Coish tied it up with a wrister four seconds after the Canadians had killed off a penalty.
The Cougars held the puck in the offensive end in the dying seconds but failed to test Paler Chow with a quality shot. The Cougars outshot Vancouver 16-4 in the third period and 30-23 in the game.
"It's a tough loss, the boys just weren't prepared to play after a 10-2 win," said Dubois. "They probably thought we were just going to roll over this team. Bounces weren't going our way. We peppered him in the third period. If we had done that the whole game it probably would have been a different story."
The loss dropped the Cougars' record to 2-3-1, three points behind the Canadians, who improved to 4-2-0.
"I think our team didn't have enough respect for the team we beat 10-2 - our best players left it in last night's game and thought it was going to be cookie night again and it was great for the Canadians to actually pound us for two periods of hockey," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague.
"Our leadership group needs to be better, they need to set the example on how we're supposed to go out and play and three out of the five didn't show up until the third period."
As much as they were snakebitten Sunday, the Cougars couldn't miss in Saturday's game. Colton Thomas collected a hat trick playing on a line with wingers Darian Long and Dubois. Dubois set up Thomas's second goal of the game in the second period with a superb deke that left two Canadians in his wake and fed Thomas a perfect pass. The Canadians replaced Paler Chow at that point but the onslaught continued and the Cougars put five more in past Lukas Shaw before the final buzzer.
Daine Dubois and Ethan O'Rourke each picked up a pair, while Coish, Long, Ty Kolle, and Trey Thomas also scored. Alex Pescitelli and Scott Atkinson were the Vancouver goalscorers.
