Jordan Waterston hadn't played a forward position in hockey since he was an atom.
He's been a blueliner ever since then, but was asked to take a spot at left wing when the L J Contracting midget tier 2 Cougars ran into injury problems for the championship final of their home tournament Sunday morning at Kin 2.
Locked in a scoreless battle with the Quesnel Thunder in the second period, the 16-year-old Waterston's offensive skills finally kicked in and he scored the first two goals of the game in an eventual 7-0 Cougars' triumph.
"I just heard in the dressing room before the game I was playing forward and just went out and tried my best," said Waterston, who also had an assist playing on a line with Drydon Barlow and Rob Raju, with Bret Wakabayashi, Tyson Ghostkeeper and Gage Wasylyshen on the injury shelf.
"I was a little rusty but I got the job done. It feels good to win at home, our first tournament win."
Barlow made it a 3-0 count late in the second period with a shorthanded goal. Trey Nichol, Dylan Krahn, Truefitt and Barlow, on a two-man power play, added to the total in the third period.
As good as the Cougars were offensively, their defence, led by Nichol and Myles Kazakoff, allowed the Thunder very few cracks at the net guarded by Alex Hinsche.
"We worked hard out there and didn't get down on each other and played as hard as we could and got lots of shots on net and just capitalized where we could," said Kazakoff. "It was a great game for all of us."
The Cougars earned their shot at the trophy with a 4-3 semifinal win over Terrace on Saturday. Garret Hilton scored twice for the Cougars, including the game winner early in the third period, while goalie Jonathan French went the distance. CJ Kinnel and Raju also scored for Prince George. In round-robin play, the Cougars beat Williams Lake 2-1, tied Smithers 2-2 and trounced Chetwynd 16-0. The Thunder got to the final with a 5-4 playoff shootout win over Smithers. Terrace went on to blank Smithers 3-0 in the third-place game Sunday.
"We came out a bit slow but as the weekend went on the boys picked it up a few notches," said Cougars head coach Randy Potskin. "We're a but young and playing in front of friends, parents and girlfriends, some of the kids got nervous, but overall it was a good team effort. It was nice to knock out Terrace, who beat us in the final last year."Trying to break up the goose egg, Quesnel coach Kevin Therrien pulled goalie Reign Turley with six minutes left but that backfired when Truefitt found a clear lane and shot the puck into an empty net. Krahn also fired an empty-netter to cap the scoring. "People were saying we were the underdogs this weekend but that's kind of underestimating our team," said Therrien, whose team had just 13 skaters. "You're never happy to lose the final, especially against a team like Prince George where we don't think they're that strong. We just shot ourselves in the foot and we didn't have the depth. Hopefully when we play them again we'll have a full bench."
