Griffen Outhouse faced 48 shots in two games and turned aside all of them on the weekend.
After stopping all 21 pucks he faced in Friday's 5-0 victory against the South Island Royals, the Cariboo Cougars netminder did it again Saturday, making 27 more saves in the Cats 4-0 win in a matinee tilt against the Victoria-based Royals.
The two wins meant a two-game series sweep for the Cougars in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League semifinal playoffs and they now advance to the league championship final on home ice at Kin 1 next weekend against the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs.
Outhouse, who celebrated his 17th birthday with Friday's victory, offered a simple explanation about how he posted two consecutive shutouts on the weekend, his first of the post-season.
"I was seeing the shots really well and the guys found the shooting lanes for me, they were blocking shots," said Outhouse, a six-foot, 165-pound product from Likely who admitted he was battling the flu all week. "It was really special getting the shutout on my birthday. We definitely wanted to win this in two games."
It wasn't the first time Outhouse has earned a shutout against the Royals. Way back on Jan. 17 in a regular season contest in Victoria, Outhouse and the Cougars defeated South Island 4-0.
Saturday in Game 2 at Kin 1, all four of the Cougar goals were scored on the power play.
Defencemen Conor MacEachern blasted a shot from the top of the point that went in just under the cross bar past Royals netminder Austin Roden in the first period. The goal came with 31 seconds left on the Cougars power play as Cam Thompson was serving a penalty for cross-checking.
In the second frame, linemates Alex Hanson and Keith Redden scored in a 90-second span midway through the period. Again both were on the power play. Hanson's goal came with 41 seconds left when he lifted a shot from the right face-off circle that beat Roden. Redden struck with 1:02 left with a man-advantage when his shot panged off the left crossbar and into the net.
Early in the third period at the 1:50 mark, Steven Jandric scored from the top of the face-off circle with a wrist shot with seven seconds left on another power play.
Defenceman Todd Bredo picked up a pair of assists, while Darren Hards, MacEachern, Colton Thomas, Wesley Shipton and Austin Gray each had one assist.
After spending the week at practice working on their special teams, Cougars co-coach and general manager Trevor Sprague said it was great the power play finally clicked on Saturday.
"We changed it up this weekend and we put Hanson's line out there, that was (co-coach) Bryan Maclean's idea," said Sprague. "We weren't doing anything on the first power play so on the next one we put them out there and they scored two goals."
The Cougars outshot the Royals 30-27.
And even though the Royals tried to neutralize the Cougars with the trap, the Cats found a way to beat it with their speed and puck possession that created scoring chances both 5-on-5 and on special teams.
"(Offensively), we kept them to the wing, they were still up in their shots, but there were not many scoring chances," said Sprague. "It's huge to win it (the series) in two games, it means an extra day of rest for us."
The Cougars will face the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs in the league final next weekend. The Chiefs, who finished third in the regular season with a 25-10-5 record, swept its semifinal series 2-0 against the Greater Vancouver Canadians Saturday night.
"It'll be tough," said Sprague. "The Chiefs are the hottest team in the league since Christmas. They haven't lost two games in a row."
In the meantime, Outhouse, a WHL Victoria Royals prospect, will continue to prepare like he always has.
"I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing and not going to change," he said.
Game 1 of the series is Friday at 5 p.m. followed by Game 2 on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Game 3, if necessary is Sunday at 10 a.m. All games are at Kin 1.
