Home-ice gold was unexpected. That fact made Sunday even sweeter for the Freightliner Cougars.
The Cougars, host team of the Up The Creek Garment Company peewee rep hockey tournament, skated in Sunday's championship game at Kin 1 and upset the Williams Lake Timberwolves 5-1. The Cats got an early first-period goal from Ryan Whitehead and used it to power themselves past the Timberwolves, a team that had beaten them in all four previous meetings this season.
"It feels amazing," said Mateo Albinati, captain of the 11- and 12-year-old Cougars. "It was our first championship game and it was our first win against Williams Lake and it came at a good time. We played a full 60 minutes and never gave up."
Heading into the final, the Cougars knew they'd be up against a top-notch goaltender, Griffin Outhouse. In his team's 3-2 Saturday night semifinal decision against Fort St. John -- a game that went to a shootout -- Outhouse was pelted with close to 70 shots. But, when Whitehead beat a defender and snapped a top-shelf shot past the Williams Lake stopper about six minutes into Sunday's final, the Cats got an extra jolt of energy and went on to give a near-perfect performance.
"Our whole bench elevated," said Cougars head coach and proud papa Glen Whitehead. "You could just feel it. My one assistant, [Chris] Kaban and I, we both just said, 'We're going to be OK here.' You see a goalie play like that, you just think even when you get in and have your shots, how are you going to score?"
In the second period, the Cougars went ahead 2-0 on a goal by Albinati, who slapped home a loose puck from in front of the net. The Cats, on goals by Davie Ray Dionne and Austin Heidt, extended their advantage to 4-0 in the final frame before Williams Lake's Trey Thomas finally solved P.G. goaltender Mathew Ens. Late in the game, Carl Ewert completed the scoring for the Cougars when he hit an empty net.
In front of a large audience of friends and family members, the Freightliner celebration quickly hit top gear.
"We celebrated like the Russians did," said Albinati, in reference to Team Russia's victory antics after its 5-3 comeback win against Team Canada in last Wednesday's world junior final.
In their Saturday semifinal, the Cougars downed Grande Prairie 2-0, the goals by Mattias Urbanski and Dionne, and the shutout courtesy of Ens.
In their other games, the Cats tied Kitimat 5-5, beat Terrace 10-2 and lost 7-0 to pre-tournament favourite Fort St. John.
The tournament title was the first of the season for the Cougars. Their previous-best result was third place.
"This big win is really going to help us and give us more confidence in ourselves," Albinati said. "Hopefully more teams will be more scared to play against us because now we've won a tournament."
Albinati said the club, which competes at the Tier 2 level provincially, should be able to take a run at a B.C. championship later this season.
"We can," he said. "If we believe and play our hardest, we can win."
