Practice makes perfect and Brandon Dent had the perfect move in his shootout toolbox to clinch the bronze medal victory for his Prince George Viking Construction peewee Tier 1 Cougars.
One of the smallest players on the ice Sunday at Kin 3, the four-foot-10, 85-pound Dent loomed large in the shootout when he convinced Hollyburn Huskies goalie Sam Matrick to bite on his deke to the right and pulled the puck to the left for a shot into an open net.
It was the only goal of the shootout, which gave the Cougars a 7-6 win for bronze in the Citizen Tournament of Champions tournament. The Kelowna Rockets claimed gold with a convincing 8-1 win over the Kamloops Jardine Blazers at Kin 2.
"I do that move for almost every shootout I do in practice and I just stuck with it," said the 12-year-old Dent.
"It was really nervewracking, being up by three goals and having them come back and tie it to go to overtime. We were nervous being on the bench in overtime and they had it in our end but Gaige [goalie Ridland] held us in. He held us in for the whole game and overtime and the shootout."
The Huskies forced OT with a power-play goal with 1:22 left in regulation time, 13 seconds after Jacob Gendron was sent off for bodychecking. The Huskies won the face-off and Ryan Upon carried the puck into open ice and found the net with a low wrist shot.
Dent had two goals and two assists, and his linemates, Chase Schurack and Elijah Goyer also scored. Corbin Hanson and Corey Cunningham also scored for the Cougars. Upon had two goals to pace the Huskies, while Spencer Snider and Colten Sun fired singles.
Being involved in a shootout in a game situation was a new experience for the 12-year-old Ridland and his teammates. Ridland made a save off the first Hollyburn shooter, Graham Neill-Klun, and relaxed when Cooper Connell lost control of the puck just as he went to shoot. For Ridland and the Cougars it all came down to the Huskies' third shooter, hulking defenceman Cole Roberts, who had already beaten Ridland late in the first period with a booming point shot. But Ridland was ready for him in the shootout and flashed his trapper just in time to block the shot.
"That was my first shootout and it's sort of hard, it's nervewracking," said Ridland. "The whole tournament was good. It took us a couple games to get on our feet but after that we were cruising."
The Cougars started with a 5-3 loss to Kamloops, were hammered 11-3 by Kelowna, then beat Vernon 7-0 and knocked off Hollyburn 7-5.
In a semifinal playoff Sunday morning the Cougars lost 2-1 to Kamloops.
"We hit two crossbars and four posts in that game and I always tell the boys that puck luck is earned but that was the one game we earned it and just didn't get it," said Cougars head coach Ryan Arnold. "I believe we outplayed them but we weren't rewarded with the victory."
The Cougars, who finished second in the Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association (OMAHA) with a 5-5-1 record will represent the Northwest zone at the Tier 1 peewee provincial tournament in Vancouver in March.
Other players on the Cougars team are Brendan Forman, Colton Kitchen, Matthew Marotta, Conor McLaughlin, Evan Crobar, Brendan Moseley, Devin Krahn, James Lalikeas, Max Arnold, and Matthew Graham.
