Bragging rights in the peewee girls invitational hockey tournament were on the line and the Prince George Scotiabank female Cougars found themselves up against familiar foes.
They took on the Prince George Leafs, one of the teams the Cougars play often in league games in the Prince George atom house 1 division.
In this battle of the genders for the gold medal Sunday at Kin 2, girl power won out.
The Cougars hung on to slim lead through two periods and went on to defeat the Leafs 7-2 to earn their first tournament victory of the season. The Cougars went 5-0 in the three-day tournament.
In Sunday's final at Kin 2, Mishayla Chistensen spiced the Cougar offence with two goals, while Jaydyn Hickey, Miranda Lutes, Katy Wendling, Aspen Vassallo and Braxtyn Shawara scored singles. Landon Ingham and Jacob Ross were the goalscorers for the atom Leafs. But it wasn't as easy for the Cougars as the score might indicate. The Leafs were ahead 2-1 halfway through the second period but gave up three unanswered goals to lose their lead.
"We played them twice this tournament and we've beaten them five times this season so they were pretty hungry," said Cougars head coach Brett Hickey. "They clean the ice at the half and the girls came out after that pretty fired up. We had about 20 seconds left in a power play when we broke for the ice cleaning and we scored right away and got three goals in 10 minutes. We had offence from all three lines."
With her team leading 4-2 late in the second period, Cougars goalie Colby Wilson made a huge save and her team responded with three more goals in the third period.
So far in tournament play this season, the peewee Cougars have placed third in Jasper, they got to the semifinal round in Kamloops, and went 1-2 in the atom boys house league tournament. Next up is a trip to Surrey later this month and a return trip to Surrey in February for the provincial championship.
Meanwhile at Kin 3, the Prince George Western Industrial Contracting female Cougars showed promise by winning two of their opening three games but wound up finishing fourth out of four teams. The Cougars ended with a pair of losses -- 3-2 in the semifinals to Williams Lake and 2-1 to the West Kootenay Wildcats in the bronze medal game Sunday.
"We played very well at the beginning of the tournament but when it came down to semifinals and finals I don't think we played as well as we could have," said 14-year-old bantam Cougars defenceman Isabel Zimmerman.
Kamloops got goals from Katelyn Merrittt and Allison Barrow and a shutout performance from Sydney Carter to defeat Williams Lake 2-0 in the bantam gold-medal game. In the bronze-medal game, Kelsey Patterson and Emma Wheeldon (near the end of the game into an empty net) took care of the scoring duties for West Kootenay, while Katie Young replied for the Cougars.
"We ended up last in our own tournament, which was obviously not what we wanted," said bantam Cougars head coach Grant Zimmerman. "All the games on the weekend were close. It was the competition we wanted, we just fell short. We basically just came out flat and we couldn't recover. Whenever we play Williams Lake it's always a battle."
The bantam Cougars' record this season has so far been highlighted by a tournament win in Kamloops and a fifth-place result in Richmond. Next up is a playoff series against Williams Lake to determine who goes to the provincial tournament next month in Fort St. John.
