For 44 minutes and 58 seconds, Catalina Hartland had the Kootenay Wildcats believing they might just upset the Northland Dodge Northern Cougars on Prince George ice at Lakewood Dental Arena.
The 15-year-old goalie came all the way from Kaslo in the West Kootenays to block shots for the Wildcats and on Sunday she was doing a bang-up job. Despite being outshot by a huge margin, Hartland was shutting out the Cougars until Hunter Mosher a way to penetrate her armour.
A spinning Mosher picked up a loose puck in the slot after linemate Madison Fjellstrom fanned on her shot attempt and scored the only goal the Cougars needed in a 4-0 B.C. Triple-A Midget Hockey League win over the Wildcats.
At that point, having beaten the Wildcats 7-0 on Friday and 6-0 on Saturday, also at the rink formerly known as Kin 1, the Cougars shooters were a frustrated bunch, knowing how many times they'd been thwarted by Hartland in their scoring attempts Sunday.
Inspired by Mosher's goal, the Cougars came back with three more to complete the three-game sweep. Marissa Nichol banged one in on a rebound; Chantelle Beadman-Rolph took the puck in deep from the far blueline and potted her own rebound, and Mosher picked up her second of the game, a wicked wrist shot in off the crossbar.
"It was definitely frustrating but we just kept firing away and found the back of the net eventually," said Mosher. "[Hartland] stepped it up today, she knew we were going to come at her hard and she saved a lot of good shots. We know how to win now and you can't take anything for granted, even if it is a weak team, you still have to play hard and put points on the board."
The Wildcats were outshot 47-8 on Sunday, most of which came in the second and third periods.
"There was a lot of shots and I just tried to keep my team in there," said Hartland. "I think we just need to work on our stamina more. We knew it would be tough playing them but we just gave it our all. We definitely need to work on some things."
The three wins left the Cougars with a 7-2-0 record. After being outscored a combined 13-0 in the previous two games, just staying close with the older, more experienced Cougars on Sunday was a small victory for the Wildcats (0-9-0), still looking for their first point of the season.
"Kootenay came ready to play and they had some good goaltending and all their players definitely stepped up this morning and worked hard and weren't going to give up," said Cougars head coach Mario Desjardins.
"With a little puck luck, things might have been different. In the first period we were sleeping a bit, only getting five shots, and the girls woke up in the last 40 minutes and got more shots and eventually the puck went in."
Sage Desjarins notched a hat trick in Friday's win and scored twice ion Saturday. Fjellstrom, Taylor Beck, Jocelyn Forrest and Ava Keis also increased their goal totals on the weekend.
Emilie Nichols of Lac La Hache posted back-to-back shutouts in the Cougars cage, making 16 saves on Saturday. Kelsey Roberts stoned the Wildcats in net on Friday while her team outshot Kootenay 43-13.
The Cougars host the defending-champion Fraser Valley Phantom in their next games, Oct. 17-19.
