Final berth eludes bantam Tier 2 Cats
After playing what rates as their best game of the season Saturday night, the Prince George Portal Installations Cougars were unable to find overdrive to keep running at full throttle Sunday morning.
They got down 4-0 to the Fort St. John Huskies in their suddendeath semifinal at the Finning Bantam Tier 2 hockey tournament at Kin 1 and never caught up, losing 4-3.
It was the only blemish on an otherwise solid weekend at the eightteam tournament for the Cougars, who sailed through the roundrobin with three straight wins.
The Cougars thought they were on the comeback trail in Sunday’s game. Justin Brownlee had just given Fort St. John a four-goal lead five minutes into the third period when, seconds later, Scott Cousins got the Cougars on the scoreboard. Nathan Mackie cut the Fort St. John lead to 4-2 with nine minutes left and Cousins scored again with five minutes to play, but that’s as close as it got.
“We just didn’t come out the way we anticipated we would,” said Cougars head coach Duane Maki. “We were just hesitant, lacking a bit of confidence playing on the bigger ice surface (at Kin 1) and it just took us awhile. We just couldn’t get the one to tie it in the end.”
Prince George opened Friday with a 5-2 win over Quesnel at Kin 2, then defeated Kitimat 4-1 Saturday morning and in the night game shut out Colorado 4-0. Tyson Smith earned the shutout in that game, making 38 saves.
“They’re from Hyland Hills (Colorado) and they’re a good team,” said Maki. “It was fun for the kids to play a U.S. team – best game of the year by far.
“Tyson played amazing in net. He was definitely a big factor. Goaltending has been our strength this year. Tyson and Jasper (Tait) have been rotating consistently and it doesn’t matter who’s in net, they’re a big reason why we’re in games and why we’re winning games.”
Their season record, including games in the Cariboo Hockey League and Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association, is now 18-8-1.
The Cougars are at the young end of the bantam age spectrum with mostly 13-year-olds. Five of their second-year bantams – defencemen Keldon Latkowski and Josh Chamberlain, and forwards Jordan Harder, Connor Quinn (of McBride) and Lachlan Pederson (of Vanderhoof) – had never played on a rep team before this season.
The Cougars’ third-place finish Sunday was their fourth tournament showing this season. They finished second in Quesnel, sixth in Abbotsford and sixth in Salmon Arm. They’re entered in the Kamloops International tournament Jan. 3-7 and will also play in Penticton Feb. 16-18.
Calgary beat Colorado 6-1 in the other semifinal Sunday morning and went on to top Fort St. John 5-3 in the final.
Maki said four other teams – Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna and Grande Prairie – wanted to play in the Finning tournament but there were not enough rinks in Prince George to accommodate them.