New Brunswick delivered a big scare to the host team of the Canada Winter Games men's hockey tournament, but B.C. had the last laugh.
Two third-period goals from defencemen Conner McDonald and Jarret Tyska wiped out a one-goal deficit and hometown hero Justin Almeida added an empty-netter as the boys from B.C. hung on to defeat New Brunswick 5-3 Sunday night at CN Centre.
The comeback for B.C. started six minutes into the third period when McDonald tied it at three. The play started with a pass out of the corner to Owen Hardy, whose shot from the slot was kicked out by goalie Jack Ryan, right onto the stick of McDonald, who rushed the net looking for the rebound.
B.C. continued to press and James Maim was stopped on a breakaway 11 minutes into the period, Ryan's best save of the game. The 16-year-old goalie came up with another gem to deny Bellerive right after that, but got fooled by a long shot off the stick of B.C. defenceman Jarret Tyska, which put B.C. ahead at the 10:35 mark.
Almeida, a Kitimat native who plays in Prince George for the Cariboo Cougars major midgets, provided the icing on the cake while killing a penalty with Ryan on the bench. The just-turned 16-year-old centre stripped the puck away from Michael Cyr and won a footrace to deposit the puck into the empty net.
The teams were tied at one apiece after the first period despite a 13-5 shot advantage for B.C. Bellerive opened the scoring on a B.C. power play at 2:30, burying a pass from Almeida, the Prince George Cougars prospect. Cyr got that one back for New Brunswick on a 5-on-3 power play.
The second period began ominously for B.C. when New Brunswick broke into the offensive zone on a 2-on-0. But defenceman Nolan Kneen timed his dive well to knock the puck away and Bellerive got sprung on an odd-man rush with Brendan Semchuk. Bellerive fed the pass over, Semchuk returned the favour and Bellerive picked the corner high with a onetimer.
That didn't seem to bother Team New Brunswick. Led by their slick setup man Peyton Hoyt of Fredericton, they answered back with two quick goals in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. Hoyt spotted Cyr in the face-off circle and put a pass right on his stick for his second goal, at the 8:02 mark. Sloppy coverage by the B.C. defence led to the go-ahead goal at 10:46. Hoyt showed great anticipation to watch the play develop and passed across the crease to Samuel Leblanc, who wristed a shot past Jordan Hollett. Hoyt finished the game with three assists.
Other opening-day results were as follows: Ontario 5 Manitoba 3, Newfoundland/Labrador 11 Northwest Territories 0, Alberta 4 Saskatchewan 1, Prince Edward Island 13 Yukon Territory 0,Quebec 6 Nova Scotia 1.
