In their fourth season of trying to prove they are among the best on the province at what they do, the Farr Fabricating Tier 1 bantam Cougars made it all the way to the showcase game at the provincial championship in Nanaimo.
They took on Seafair Islanders of Richmond in the final Thursday night and lost 3-0. Behind the shutout goaltending of Ajeet Gunarah, the Islanders outshot the Cougars 43-18,
The silver-medal finish marked the end of a satisfying season for the Cougars, whose only loss in the round-robin tournament was a 4-1 defeat to Seafair on Wednesday. Prince George started with 1-1 tie with Victoria, beat Yukon 7-1 and in the semifinal round blanked Nanaimo 6-0.
"We finished second in the pool, played Nanaimo, first in the other pool, and we played a good solid game all around and then we had a pretty short turnaround before the final and they played their hearts out," said Cougars head coach Mirsad Mujcin. "The effort was there, they worked hard all year and they should be happy. I mean, no one likes second place but it's an honour to have that in our back pockets to say we've done this well and the players will reflect on that through time and they will enjoy the moment."
Second-year bantams Landon Ingham and Carter Yarish carried a good chunk of the offensive load for the Cougars in the tournament, along with Kellen Brienen, Fischer O'Brien and Jacob Ross and they had a great tandem in goal with Daniel Sturgeon joined by Ken Gerow, who returned from an injury just in time for provincials.
The Farr bantams have no other Tier 1 bantam teams in the region to play and compete in a limited schedule in the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association which does not include playoffs. Leaning on five first-year bantams, the young Cougars did well in that league, finishing with a 12-5-2 record. They also had a successful bronze-medal showing in the Kamloops International tournament and played well against some tough teams in the Chilliwack tournament early in the season.
"It was a good way to end the year," said Mujcin, who had help from assistant coaches Mike Burgess and Steven Penner. "We'd been to three previous provincials and we didn't have the best of luck, but this one, the boys just kept pushing themselves. It was good to see these young guys, they take a lot of pride and that determination is awesome."
The city's two midget teams each made it to the provincial final. The Coast Inn of the North Cougars were taking on the Vancouver Thunderbirds in the Tier 1 midget championship game late Friday night in Fort St. John. The Tier 1 Cougars finished on top of the tournament standings with a 4-0-2 record, while Vancouver ended up 4-1-1.
Coast Inn played Friday morning and skated to a 4-4 tie with Saanich, while Vancouver was able to rest all day for the final. The teams tied 3-3 in the opening game of the tournament on Monday. The Cougars then reeled off four straight wins, beating North East 5-4, East Kootenay 4-3, Burnaby 4-2, and Central zone 7-2.
The Panago Tier 2 midget Cougars advanced to the provincial final Thursday night in Quesnel and lost 4-2 to the Quesnel Thunder in front of about 1,000 noisy fans at West Fraser Centre.
Kaden Merritt and Jacque Gilkerson, on a power play, staked the Thunder to a 2-0 lead with goals two minutes apart before the game was eight minutes old. After a scoreless second period, the Cougars outshot the Thunder 17-2 in the third period but one of those two shots found daylight behind Cougars goalie Josh Adams. Merritt Wright fired the gamewinner that made it a 3-0 game 6:58 into the third. Kienan Miller and Ryan Mager, late in the game, scored for Prince George.
"We were in tough, Quesnel peaked at the right time and had great goaltending (Jakob Drapeau) and the place was packed and the energy the crowd gave them probably deflated us a bit," said Cougars head coach Don Gaboury. "After they got the first goal the kids were kind of scrambling, squeezing their sticks a bit. It's the first time a lot of those kids have played in front of a crowd anywhere close to that. It definitely affected us, they were fighting the puck and bit trying to do too much."
The Cougars and Thunder tied 2-2 in the round robin. Prince George had a 5-1 record against the Thunder up to that point after knocking them out of the regional playoffs in the first round.
The Cougars lost their opening game 7-4 to Cowichan Valley but went undefeated the rest of the way to the final, beating Coquitlam 6-1, Port Moody 5-3, Fort St. John 10-1. They topped Thompson zone 5-3 in the semifinals, while Quesnel beat Fort St. John 5-3.
"We had a great season right from the start all the way to the end and just came up one game short," said Gaboury. "I know it doesn't happen very often for a (Prince George) Tier 2 team t get to the final, we had a pretty special team this year, skill-wise, and I've never coached a team before that was so focused and got along so well and supported each other.
"The leaders on the team (Austin Guinard, Aiden Weiss, Hayden Kerr, Evan Crobar and Mager) were fantastic in bringing along the first year-kids and the younger kids, just getting them up to the next level. Our goaltending (Adams and Tyler Lindstrom) was strong all year."
Gaboury, who shared the coaching duties with Tom Needham and Derek Miller, had six third-year players, five second-years and seven first-year midgets.
Two other provincial tournaments involving Prince George teams are still in progress. The Western Industrial Contracting bantam female Cougars are in Vancouver, while the Scotiabank peewee female Cougars are in Dawson Creek.
The WIC bantams lost their opener n Wednesday 3-2 to Kelowna, beat Vancouver 5-3 on Thursday and lost to Langley 4-2 Thursday night. The Cougars played North East Friday afternoon (score not available) and were set to face North Shore Friday night.
The Prince George peewees lost their two opening games, 13-1 to Kelowna and 16-1 to Tri-Cities. They'll play two games Saturday, facing North Shore at 8 a.m. and Surrey at 4:45. The final is set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
The Coast Cariboo Cougars lost the Midget Tier 1 final 4-2 to the Vancouver Thunderbirds.
