After a nine-month pandemic pause, the Cariboo Cougars didn’t get discouraged when the North West Hawks of North Vancouver came in for a four-game weekend set at Kin 1 and poured it on, outscoring the Cougars 22-4 in the first three games.
Much to the delight of their friends and families gathered in the rink to watch, the Cougars didn’t quit, they just got better.
Trailing the Hawks 2-0 with less than seven minutes left in the fourth game Sunday morning, the Cougars’ offence suddenly sparked to life. Parker White stripped the puck away from the Hawks at their own blueline and went wide across the crease to tuck the puck in behind goalie Jon Castro. A couple minutes later, Cougar winger Amar Powar rapped in a loose puck left unguarded by the post to tie the game 2-2.
Five minutes of overtime settled nothing and that left it up to Decker Mujcin to shine on the shootout stage. He scored the only goal of that penalty-shot session, faking his shot as he pulled the puck into his body to fool Castrol with a backhand deke.
“I saw the goalie was coming out towards me, so I went to my backhand and put it in,” said the 16-year-old Mujcin.
Mujcin, a 16-year-old Prince George minor hockey product, spent the past couple weeks trying out for the AJHL Spruce Grove Saints and was playing his 12th game in eight days Sunday. If he was fatigued, he certainly didn’t show it, centring a line with Powar and Ryan Toor.
“It usually takes a team a couple of practices to get going and we didn’t have any of that coming into it so we battled pretty hard until we got it going,” said Mujcin, who plans to attend the Prince George Spruce Kings’ junior camp, which starts Sept. 17.
“It’s a lot of kids’ first year playing major midget and everyone’s going to be shaky if you haven’t played a game in while and it’s hard to get going right off the bat.”
Cooper Wilson scored the opener for the Hawks in the first period. The 3-2 victory was a satisfying end to an abrupt return to high-level hockey for the Cougars, who had just two practices to prepare. It was their only preseason action before they head to Nanaimo to open the 36-game B.C. Hockey U-18 Triple-A League against the North Island Silvertips, Sept. 24-25.
“I’m proud of that group, we could have packed it in after Friday and they continued to battle hard and do things the right way,” said Cougars head coach Tyler Brough. “We found a 60-minute effort and got a win.
“We knew we were going to have to take the weekend with a grain of salt, we haven’t had any time together as a group, we had one practice on Friday and then threw ourselves into four games. We’re a young group right now, we still have guys away (at junior team camps) and we’re mixing guys in and out of the lineup to see where it plays out.”
Cats’ goalie Tysen Smith was away at the Portland Winterhawks’ WHL camp and the Cougars used four other netminders, including Ben Delisi, who came in halfway through Sunday’s game to replace Owen Reed, with the Cougars trailing 1-0. Ryan Watt scored for the Hawks on a wraparound to put the Hawks up 2-0 early in the third period, but Delisi was flawless the rest of the game and kept the score even with a game-saving stop to deny Jaxson Ruthven with 28 seconds left in regulation time. The Cougars had the bulk of the chances in overtime, outshooting the Hawks 4-1 in the five-minute OT and 34-30 in the game. Delisi’s glove stop in the shootout took away a sure-goal from Colton McLeod.
“I like the character in that room and I’m proud of that,” said Brough. “I’m looking forward to getting some ice under our belt and get some team structure. We’re going to be good this year. I just told them, our m.o. is going to be hard work. We can’t have any team came in and outwork us. We aren’t the most talented team in the league but we’re going to be the hardest-working group in the league.”
The Cougars played just six games last season before the COVID virus flared up again in November and health regulations forced the league to shut down.
“It seems like it’s been an eternity and we’re super-excited to get back in our game jerseys and play somebody else,” said Brough. “It was nice to play at home in front of fans; I’m sure they’re hungry to watch hockey too.”
Eight players on the Cougars’ roster are back from last season, including Mujcin, Pryce Peats, Max Sanford, Jace Norman, Zach Leslie, Jordan LaGreca, Chase Pacheco and Matyas Mocilac. Powar played in the league last year for the South Island Royals.
“Our team is heart-and-soul kind of grinders, we don’t have a lot of goalscorers so we’ve got to work for our goals,” said Peats, a 17-year-old defenceman from Chetywnd. “We pressured them and they started to cough it up – it’s a good squad over there and it’s good to get a win against them.
“It’s tough to just jump into games after just practice. The team got better as the weekend went on. Everybody started getting more comfortable with each other and good things started to happen in the end there.”
Cougars defenceman Mathew Gillard (Victoria Royals) and forward Colby Busche (Everett Silvertips) were away at WHL rookie camps, while forwards Peats (Kamloops Blazers) and Max Sanford (Kelowna Rockets) and defenceman Zach Leslie (Prince George Cougars) leave this week for their respective camps.
The Cariboo Cougars U-17 triple-A squad lost 6-1 to the Hawks Sunday morning at Kin 2. The visiting Hawks won all four games, opening with a 5-1 win Friday, and 5-4 and 6-4 victories Saturday.
