With one last shot block, centre Mitch Williams and the Vancouver Northwest Giants knew they'd survived the storm.
They held off relentless pressure from the Cariboo Cougars in a one-sided third period and left the ice Friday at Kin 1 with a 3-2 victory, drawing first blood in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League best-of-three playoff semifinal.
Williams knows the Cougars well, having played centre for them the previous two seasons, and he wasn't surprised they pushed the Giants to verge of the breaking point while protecting their one-goal lead.
"It's a great feeling, it was a great team effort out there and all the boys pulled their weight," said Williams, 17, a born-and-bred Prince George boy who moved with his family to North Vancouver last summer.
"They were coming with everything they had, shooting from the points and everywhere and we definitely stood our ground well. Goaltending helped so much."
Indeed it did. The Cougars peppered David Tendeck with 44 shots and only two of them, shorthanded goals from Riley Coish and Josh Maser, got behind the 16-year-old netminder from North Vancouver.
Liam Kindree, Kyle Kaufmann and Justin Wilson supplied the offence for the visitors.
The Cougars outshot the Giants 17-9 in the third period and had significant time deep in the offensive zone with the puck in high-percentage shooting lanes but the Giants held their ground, preventing many Grade-A shots from getting through to Tendeck.
"When they were taking the shots form the outside and our goalie couldn't corral it we were definitely all collapsing into the middle to clear that puck," said Williams.
The Giants grabbed the early lead 4:48 into a quick-paced opening period. Kindree was all over a juicy rebound that kicked into the slot, a play started by Prince George Cougars prospect Jackson Leppard, picked eighth overall in the 2015 WHL bantam draft.
The Cougars tied it up late in the period while shorthanded with a bit of a fluky one. Maser gained the puck along the boards and chipped it ahead to Coish, who took off on a breakaway. Tendeck made the save but the rebound hit the skate of Giants defenceman Carter Stephenson into the net with 1:42 left in the period.
The Giants made up unlucky bounce 33 seconds later with Cats' defenceman Jonas Harkins still in the box serving a head contact penalty. Kaufmann was perfectly positioned to take a swat at a puck that came off the end glass and goalie Dorrin Luding had no chance to stop it
Wilson made it a 3-1 count when he was left open in front of the Cougar net, 2:17 into the third period, and he hammered home Kindree's feed from behind the goal line. The Cougars' penalty-killers got into the scoring act again just two minutes after Wilson's goal. Defenceman Joel Patsey spotted Maser behind enemy lines and sprung him into the clear and the 16-year-old from Houston finished with a shot between the legs of Tendeck.
"I thought for the most part we had a pretty solid game, we outshot them and we were in their zone for most of the third period and the second period and we just need to capitalize on our chances more," said the just-turned 17-year-old Maser. "We just have to get to the dirty areas in front, bang home rebounds and if we do that (Saturday) we're going to have a pretty easy game.
"They're a tough team to play against, they're a big physical team and they have guys who can put the puck in the net. We have that, too, but we couldn't do that today."
Shots were 44-27 in favour of the Cougars.
The series winner advances to the league championship series against the winner of the Valley West Hawks-Okanagan Rockets semifinal series.
"For our young group, our staff is proud of what our guys did in that game," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. "The third period, everything was at their net and Tendeck made some great saves there. He was their team and all 19 players on his team are probably thanking their lucky stars he was there. I think that was the difference in the game."
The Cougars have not beaten the Giants in the playoffs since 2008, when they were the fourth-place team and swept the Giants in two straight games in the semifinal round. The Cougars went on to defeat the third-ranked Okanagan Rockets in a two-game series in Kelowna to claim their only major midget championship.
Game 2 is set for Saturday at 5 p.m. at Kin 1. If a Game 3 is needed, it would be played Sunday at 11 a.m.
"We still have our work cut out, and we expect them to come out (Saturday) even tougher than they did today," said Giants head coach Clint Thornton. "Their forwards are strong and physical and tough on the puck and we didn't want to try to compete toe-to-toe with their size and strength. We just wanted to get it out of the goal-scoring areas as quick as possible."
