The Vancouver Northwest Giants needed was one more victory to clinch their sixth-straight regular season title, and they needed someone to deliver it.
Colton Kerfoot was more than willing to take on the task.
As he's done so often this season against B.C. Major Midget Hockey League opponents, Kerfoot flexed his scoring muscles right in the face of the Cariboo Cougars.
The 17-year-old Giants forward scored three times in a seven-minute span of the first period in a 4-1 win over the Cougars Sunday at Kin 1. The Giants won 7-0 on Saturday to complete a completed a two-game sweep on the last weekend of the regular season.
"It was a big win, they got up on us early but we battled back and got four in the first to clinch first place," said Kerfoot. "This is a big rivalry, they've played a lot in the finals and were top top-two in the league for years and it's fun to play them.
"I've had a few two-goal games but this was my first hat trick. It was pretty special."
Kerfoot is following in the footsteps of his 19-year-old brother Alex, a fifth-round draft pick in the New Jersey Devils who now plays at Harvard. Alex was a Giant before he moved on to the BCHL with Coquitlam and in 2010-11 he won the BCMMHL scoring title. Colton Kerfoot and Tyson Jost of Okanagan were duking it out for the scoring title heading into Sunday's games. Kerfoot's three goals Sunday left him with 38 goals 48 assists and 86 points in 40 games.
The Cougars were outshot 21-5 in the opening period Sunday but drew first blood when Chase DuBois intercepted a Dante Fabbro pass and popped it into the Giants' net 3:25 into the game. Keyvan Mokhtari got that one back at the 8:57 mark with a backhander that fooled goalie Jeremy Matte. A face-off win in the Cougars' end set up Kerfoot for his first of the game to give the Giants the lead at 12:20 of the first, and he converted a power-play chance a couple minutes later, then batted in a puck that bounced off Matte's chest to complete his natural hat trick can cap the scoring late in the period.
"We made four mistakes in the first period and they ended up in the back of the net and from then on we played mistake-free hockey for the most part and our goalie was able to make some saves when we broke down," said Cougars head coach Bryan Maclean. "If you're not ready to play for 20 minutes you're going to have a hard time. They have good quality players from top to bottom and you have to be ready every time you go on the ice against them or they'll make you pay. But I thought the last 40 minutes was real positive, we got shots on net and getting opportunities to score."
Kerfoot was sent in on a breakaway pass from Fabbro 39 seconds into the second period but was denied a fourth goal when Matte flashed his glove in the way of the high shot. Matte finished with 34 saves. Trevor Winters blocked 23 Cougars shots in the Giants nets.
"Jeremy kept us in there, it could have been an 8-1 by the end of the first period," said Cougars forward Steven Jandric. 'They have a strong power play and their top line is pretty strong and we had to play catchup the rest of the game."
The Cougars (17-21-2) finished sixth and will play the third-place Valley West Hawks in the first round of playoffs, a best-of-three series to be played this weekend in Langley. The Cougars went 0-3-1 against the Hawks in the season series but all were close games.
"I think we'll do pretty well in the playoffs, and Valley West is a great team to play in the first round," said Jandric. "We played the Rockets and Giants right at the end of the season and got used to their speed and we'll be even faster against Valley West."
The Giants and Okanagan Rockets were tied for first heading into the weekend but the Rockets left the door open when they blew a five-goal lead in the third period Saturday and ended up tied 7-7 with he Vancouver Northeast Chiefs.
The Giants (33-5-1) open their playoffs Friday in Vancouver against the eighth-place South Island Royals.
