Manitoba defeated Canada Winter Games defending champion British Columbia 5-2 in a defensive yet entertaining men's hockey game Monday night at CN Centre.
B.C. got the first major opportunity when a knee-on-knee by Manitoba's Cayden Kraus on Jordan Bellerive handed them a five-minute man advantage 11:05 into the first. But they generated just one shot on net.
Manitoba fared no better when they got the next power play, generating a single shot on a two-man advantage for 1:17.
But with just 39.2 seconds left in the first, Manitoba converted on just their third shot of the game when Brett Davis ripped a wrist shot over goalie Dorrin Luding's shoulder and underneath the crossbar for a 1-0 lead. Luding is a member of the Prince George-based Cariboo Cougars.
Manitoba jumped to a 2-0 lead 7:30 into the second when Davis stole the puck from a B.C. defender, broke in over the blueline, bounced a shot off Luding's pad and then buried the rebound from a sharp angle.
Then, in the span of just 13 seconds, B.C. scored twice to tie the game and liven a quiet pro-B.C. crowd in the process. (A fair number of yellow-jacket Team Toba fans were in the stands too.)
On B.C.'s first goal, Kitimat's Justin Almeida - another member of the Cariboo Cougars and a prospect of the WHL's Prince George Cougars - stole the puck just inside the Manitoba blueline and fed it to Brendan Semchuk who beat goalie Matthew Radomsky high to the glove side from close in. Jake Harrison tied the game shortly after when his blooper eluded Radomsky and found the back of the net.
But 1:43 later, Manitoba had the lead once more. They used some sustained offensive pressure to work the puck into the slot where Jett Woo wristed a shot off the crossbar and over the goal line, Hayden Ostir and Connor Dewar assisting.
Like they did in the first, Manitoba scored in the dying seconds of the second, this time on a five-on-three power play when Tyler Campbell got the puck up into the air and then batted it into the B.C. net from the corner, giving his team a 4-2 lead going into the third.
B.C. outshot Manitoba 13-6 in the third but could not beat Radomsky. Manitoba's Ostir scored into an empty net for the 5-2 win.
