Work ethic trumps talent when talent doesn't work hard.
The Kootenay Ice left Prince George Sunday afternoon with smiles on their faces knowing they gutted out a win over the top team in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League.
The high and mighty Cariboo Cougars, on the other hand, were left licking their wounds after the Ice reminded them about the dangers of resting on past accomplishments.
Less than a day after getting spanked 7-1 by the Cougars Saturday night at Kin 1, the Ice, a team that had won just three of 29 games, returned to the rink Sunday morning and turned the tables on the Cougars with a 7-5 victory.
Two shorthanded goals and two on the power play in the second period put the Ice ahead 5-1 lead and they hung on to beat the Cougars with a timely goal late in the game. Shawn Campbell's slow-moving slider through a screen trickled into the net for the gamewinner with five minutes left and Aiden Browell scored into an empty net to seal it.
"This is a major boost to our confidence and we're going to use this for confidence the rest of the season," said Ice right winger Kadrian Klimchuk, who assisted on the winning goal.
"We battled hard and our effort paid off. We were rolling two centres and it was tough. But when you get a couple of shorthanded goals your confidence goes way up and you play much better. It really helped us out."
The ice grabbed the lead 19 seconds into the second period when Klimchuk picked off a pass attempt by Justin Hards in the Cougar end and snapped the puck in behind Dorrin Luding with the Ice one man short. Then at the 5:19 mark, with the Ice again on the penalty kill, Korbyn Chabot stripped Zach Smith of the puck and buried it into the net for his second goal of the game. Evan Gorman and affiliate player Brendan McKay cashed in their power-play chances before the period ended.
Justin Almeida led the Cougar cause with two goals. Kolten Carpenter, Wesley Shipton also scored. Brendan Moore's shorthanded goal made it a 5-5 game with eight minutes left. But it wasn't enough.
"It was a tough loss, we were outworked today and our execution was bad," said Almeida, who played Saturday for the WHL Cougars in a 3-0 loss to Seattle. "Our power play has been one of our strengths all year. I don't think we'd given up a shorthanded goal all year and that bit us in the butt today."
Injuries and exams left the Ice a few players short of a full team, but just like last year, when they beat and tied the Cougars in their two-game trip in Prince George, they left town with a happy busload.
"By the time we finished we only had two lines and four defencemen and I give them all the credit in the world, we're not supposed to do that against a team that just won the Mac's tournament, so we're real excited four ourselves" said Ice head coach Rob Wright.
"It's unbelievable, we'll be talked about in the whole Kootenays. Everybody knows they won the Mac's Cup and everybody was talking about Prince George, you're going to come up and get your butts kicked, To beat a team like that is massive for our program, it also adds to our recruiting ability."
The Cougars are the most penalized team in the BCMMHL and those who took undisciplined penalties in either game earned the wrath of head coach Trevor Sprague, who benched four of his players -- Chase DuBois, Steven Jandric, Darren Hards and Todd Bredo -- for extended periods as punishment.
"They have to learn not to be selfish," said Sprague. "We didn't play 60 minutes, we played 12 minutes of hockey today and came back, so that was a positive for us. But our preparation for the game was not good. Our leadership group needs to be better on making sure guys are focused in the warmup, and they weren't.
"Kooteney just works and works and puts pucks on net. They don't have the talent we have, not even close. Junior B pillages them. We have no excuses. It's time to play playoff hockey and be committed to what this team has done to win hockey games or we'll be a first-round knockout."
Saturday's game was the fifth annual Jameson Jones cancer fundraiser, an event which raised $1,500. It was also a banner occasion for the Cougars, who raised the Mac Midget Tournament championship banner they won last month in Calgary.
The Cougars had seven goalscorers Saturday -- Bredo, Joel Patsey, Connor McEachern, Alex Hanson, Mitch Williams, Keith Redden and Colton Thomas. Klimchuk scored for the Ice.
Griffen Outhouse made 26 saves in the Cariboo nets as the Cougars outshot Kootenay 40-27.
Sunday's game was the last regular season home game of the season for the Cougars, who will travel to Abbotsford to face the Fraser Valley Hawks this weekend. The Cougars conclude their schedule later this month against the Vancouver Northwest Giants in Burnaby and in Kelowna against the Okanagan Rockets.
