Maybe it was a case of the Cariboo Cougars spending too much time reading their own press clippings about living the high life as a first-place team in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League.
Or maybe they were just in a generous mood and decided to give the South Island Royals a few parting gifts before they left the rink at Kin 1 Sunday morning.
Whatever accounted for the disastrous ending that plagued the Cougars in their 7-3 defeat, it was an embarrassment of epic proportions for the home team and Austin Roden was loving every second of it.
In his first start since falling ill to bout of pneumonia two weeks ago, the 16-year-old from Sydney made 41 saves in the Royals nets and his teammates did the rest, scoring six goals in the third period to beat the Cougars 7-3.
For Roden, a major midget rookie whose father Kent was born and raised in Prince George, and whose mother Kirsten lived in the city as a toddler, the chance to perform in front of his extended relatives brought out the best in him. His solid netminding was the reason the Cougars weren't holding a substantial lead heading into the final period.
"I have a lot of family here and I knew they were all going to be here and I pretty happy with the game," said Roden. "I was just seeing pucks well and tracking it well and my rebound control was good today. We just came together in the third really well. We got a lot of 2-on-1s and odd breaks which really helped."
Brandon Tutte and Kayden Peck each scored two goals and the Royals got singles from Cam Cinsman, Parker Ellis and Cam Coutre. Riley Coish, Steven Jandric and Chase DuBois replied for the Cougars, who blew a 2-1 lead while getting outshot 21-11 in the third period, which began ominously with Peck nailing a shot off the goalpost. Cinsman started the comeback, popping in a rebound. Tutte caught up to a perfect pass from Taylor Redmond and took advantage of a bad line change to get behind the Cougars defence, finishing with a deke through the legs of Dorrin Luding to give the Royals the lead 6:58 into the third.
Tutte's second goal came off a giveaway right in front of the Cougar net. The Cougars pulled to within a goal on a nifty 2-on-1 in which Jandric waited until the last second to set up DuBois for a tap-in but Peck capitalized on another odd-man rush and Ellis was allowed to wander in untouched by a Cougar defenceman to pot a loose-puck rebound.
"That's not the way we wanted to approach the third period but I think a lot of it has to be credited to the Royals," said Cougars assistant coach Bryan MacLean. "We lost the third period [Saturday] 2-0 to them and they built off that and kept coming at us and we got humbled by that, and their goalie was good. He gave them in it for long enough and he gave them an opportunity to win the game.
"We came in here feeling a little overconfident and weren't quite focused on the task at hand. To be a first-place team you have to compete for 60 minutes every single game and we need to find that habit."
The Cougars scored four power-play goals Saturday to beat the Royals 7-2. Former Cougar Lane Delfs was replaced in net by Roden after the sixth Cougar goal.
"That wasn't our team's best effort and we sort of hung Lane out to dry," said Royals head coach Geoff Grimwood. "We're really happy with both our goalies, they do a great job, and I was really happy to see Austin get the win. He lost 20 pounds when he had pneumonia and it was great to see.
"I thought we played well in both games but the more we were in the box the harder it got. In the third period we managed to stay out of the penalty box and life was a lot easier for us. We took advantage of their lack of finish today and capitalized on it."
The Royals improved their season record to 5-7-0. Sunday's loss and a pair of wins for the Vancouver Northwest Giants dropped the Cougars (9-2-1) into second place, two points behind the Giants (10-0-0), who beat the Valley West Hawks twice on the weekend and have two games in hand over the Cougars.
Cougars defenceman Kolten Carpenter was still out of the lineup, serving a 45-day suspension for hitting a linesman during a scrap at the end of the Oct. 5 game at CN Centre against the Greater Vancouver Canadians. Cougars head coach/general manager Trevor Sprague served out his two-game suspension for failure to properly file game sheets to the league office.
