At five-foot-four, 137 pounds, Connor Johnston was the smallest player on the ice Wednesday night at the midget Tier 2 provincial hockey championship at Kin 1.
But when the Vernon Vipers needed a gamebreaker to sink the Prince George LJ Contracting midget Cougars, Johnston transformed himself into a giant.
He stripped the puck away from the Cougars deep in their own territory and a lone Cougar defenceman standing guard in front of goalie Mathew Ens, Johnston spotted linemate Carl Main and fed him a perfect pass which he snapped into the net for what stood as the winner in a 4-2 Vipers victory.
It was the second of two goals in the game for Main, whose team improved to 3-0 while handing the hometown Cougars (2-1) their only defeat so far at the eight-team tournament.
"CJ (Johnston) just battled hard for the puck, saw me open and threw it to me and I just shot the puck," said Main.
"He just works hard all the time, he never gives up. He's small but he plays like a big player. He hits guys who are big and tall. He's our team, basically."
Johnston, Main and right winger Bruce Pyle were rewarded for their forechecking efforts all game and kept the Cougars power play from causing much damage. The Cougars are blessed with plenty of speed of their own and created plenty of scoring chances but had trouble finishing on goalie Conor Webb.
The shots ended up 36-28 in the Vipers' favour.
In their only other meeting this season, the teams tied 5-5.
Down 3-2 to start the third period, the Cougars played the first two minutes of the period on the power play when Nick Cherkowski got caught hooking at the end of the second period but the Cougars' power play was held without a quality chance.
Cherkowski factored in Vernon's fourth goal just past the midway point of the third period. He shovelled the puck ahead for linemate Joe Eggert, standing just off the post. Eggert waited for Ens to go down and slid the puck in underneath his body.
Dean Whitcomb opened the scoring just 33 seconds into the game, combining with Cougar linemates Tyler Marsh and Garet Anderson. But the Vipers had an answer for that when Main tied it up at the 2:12 mark. Stephane Richard gave Vernon the lead 10 minutes later, sneaking a long shot through the legs of Ens.
Cougar captain Matthias Urbanski made it a 2-2 game, 56 seconds into the second period. The 16-year-old centre used to his speed to get free on a right wing rush and lifted a high shot in behind Webb.
"We had a great effort and our skill level was there it's just their goaltending was stellar -- we just have to bear down on the chances we get and out the puck in the back of the net," said Urbanski. "They have a strong team and it's hard to match them. This was the fastest game we've had all year and to keep up to it was a hard challenge for us but I know we can keep up to it."
Urbanski came close to making it a one-goal game with nine minutes left but was robbed on a backhander by the outstretched glove of Webb. That's as close as it got for the Cougars, who will face Aldergrove (3-0) in a semifinal playoff Thursday at 8 a.m. Vernon plays Williams Lake (2-1) in the other semifinal Thursday at 11 a.m.
"That's probably the best team we've played all year, but I'm real confident we're right there," said Cougars head coach Wes Scott. "A couple bounces here and there and we'll ne just fine.
"That's our Mulligan, we knew we'd get one this week and now our backs are against the wall but so is everybody else's so it should be a pretty level playing field (Thursday). This was very fast hockey, which is what we needed to get ready for the pace (in the playoffs)."
The winners meet in the final Thursday at 8 p.m., while the semifinal losers play for bronze at 5 p.m. All games are at Kin 1.
In other Tier 2 midget results Wednesday, Williams Lake beat Mission 4-2, Castelgar edged Fort St. John 3-1 and Aldergrove thumped Campbell River 12-1.
Meanwhile, at the Tier 1 midget provincial championship in Comox, the Prince George Coast Inn of the North Cougars booked themselves a ticket into Thursday final when they blanked Coquitlam 3-0 Wednesday morning.
Marcus Allen earned the shutout in the Coquitlam game. James Gordon, Landon Moleschi and Rob Raju took care of the scoring for the Cougars.
The Cougars went on to beat host Comox 3-1 Wednesday night to improve to 4-1. Trailing 1-0 with four minutes left in the third period, the Cougars scored three unanswered goals. Carl Ewert, Gordon and, into an empty net, Kyle Boshier, were the Cougars' marksmen.
The Coast Inn Cats started the seven-team tournament Sunday with a 7-2 win over the Vancouver Thunderbirds, then beat Saanich 9-2 on Monday, later losing 6-4 that day to Kelowna.
The Cougars will play Vernon for the championship starting Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
In Coquitlam, The Farr Fabricating Tier 1 bantam Cougars lost their final game 5-2 Wednesday to the Burnaby Winter Club Bruins.
The Cougars (2-3) finished third in the six-team tournament. They opened Sunday with a 6-2 win over Kamloops and beat Coquitlam 8-3 later that day. On Monday they took on the North Shore Winter Hawks and lost 3-1, then fell 12-8 Tuesday to Nanaimo.
Burnaby and North Shore met in the championship game later Wednesday.
At the Tier 1 peewee provincials in Abbotsford, the Viking Construction Cougars lost 504 to Abbotsford Wednesday to finish the six-team tournament 0-5. Burnaby played Kamloops in Wednesday's late final.
