A shutout, against the best team in the league. Goaltender Megan Spooner couldn't have dreamed up a better scenario for the final home game of her career.
Sunday at Kin 1, the 17-year-old Spooner backstopped the Bursey Buryn Cougars to a 4-0 win against the Thompson-Okanagan Rockets. The result may go down as the biggest upset of the B.C. Hockey Female Midget AAA League season because the Rockets -- formed mostly by Kelowna and Kamloops players -- entered the game with a 20-3-1 record and the last-place Cats came in at 3-21-3.
The contest was the last of the regular season for the 15- to 17-year-old Cougars.
"In six years of playing hockey, we've never beaten Kelowna before, and to shut them out was just amazing -- especially in my last league game of minor hockey," Spooner said. "It's a pretty amazing feeling."
Spooner admitted she was thinking about the possibility of a shutout as time was ticking away. But, she was more focused on just holding on for the victory.
"With 10 minutes left we were up 3-0 and we've lost leads like that before," she said. "I was trying to keep those thoughts out of my head and we pulled it off."
In the game, the Cougars were almost airtight in their defensive zone coverage and, when the Rockets got scoring opportunities, Spooner was there to take them away. The Cougars, meanwhile, took full advantage of their chances and got goals from Kyanna Prazma, Taya Garneau, Sarah Thon and Deane Carlson.
Garneau's second-period marker was a huge one because it gave the Cats some much-needed breathing room. On the play, Garneau accepted a drop pass from Robyn Murphy and went short-side on the goaltender.
On Saturday night, the Cougars played well against the Rockets but dropped a 5-1 decision. Kelcie German scored the goal and Spooner took the loss in net. Even though the Cats were on the wrong end of the score, they bottled up the momentum they generated and used it on Sunday.
"We battled so hard [Saturday] and just didn't get the bounces so we came out [Sunday] knowing what we could do," said 17-year-old defenceman Bethany Roy, the team captain. "The bounces came our way and we came out with a great win."
Cougars coach Jason Garneau praised his players for how well they executed the game plan.
"They did all of the things we talked about," he said. "They got the puck in deep and limited [the Rockets'] chances inside on Megan. The team did everything that we'd been working on and they did it really well, so full value to our team for the win."
The Cougars will rest up this coming weekend while the other four teams in the league finish up their regular-season schedules. In the first round of playoffs, the Cats will face either the Kootenay Wildcats or Vancouver Fusion, who currently sit fourth and third respectively.
Naturally, Sunday's win has the Cougars full of confidence.
"Anything can happen in playoffs," said Roy, a Fort St. John product who will continue her hockey career at Calgary's SAIT Polytechnic next school year. "Playoffs are where all the big upsets come. We're hoping to go to Vancouver. I think those would be closer games and less traveling."
The teams will play a best-of-three series and the winner will meet the first-place club -- likely the Rockets -- in the semifinals.
