Cariboo Cougars strike early and often
Scoring goals is the goal of every hockey player. Even the goalies like to get into the act of scoring on rare occasions when they have a shot at an empty net. Heading into their weekend set against the Kootenay Ice, the Cariboo Cougars were not a happy bunch. They weren’t scoring much and were trending near the bottom half of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League standings, tied for seventh in the 11team league when they dropped the puck Saturday night at Kin 1.
All that frustration vanished when they scored 21 times and allowed none in the two-game series. The Cougars began the lamp-lighting festival with a 12-0 whitewash in the first game Saturday night and did not let up until the final buzzer in the second one Sunday morning, blanking Kootenay 9-0.
“Last weekend I thought we were creating offence against the (Thompson) Blazers and it just filtered into this weekend against Kootenay and we ended up putting up two big numbers,” said Cougars head coach Tyler Brough. “But on the other side of that, defensively, I thought we were just as good. We didn’t give up anything. It was pretty convincing and that’s what this team needs right now.”
The Cougars came out Sunday sporting their lime-green trimmed third-jerseys to help raise money and promote awareness of mental health issues and Curtis Hammond set his mind on pushing the pace offensively, finishing with three goals. Brendan Pigeon fired two pucks across the line and Booker Daniel, Brennan Bott, Jacob Gendron and Max Arnold also scored.
Jaxon Danilec had two goals and two assists in Saturday’s game.
“Guys like Hammond and Danilec and Bott and (Connor) Flemming have struggled to put the puck in the net,” said Brough. “They work their butts off and sometimes it goes unnoticed with the penalty kills and the hard minutes they play. So it’s nice for them to get paid off with a point or two, or a goal here or there.”
Cougar goalies Xavier Cannon, who played Saturday, and Colton PhillipsWatts, who made 13 saves Sunday while the Cougars built a 53-13 shot advantage, were able to relax through long stretches of inactivity in the Cougars’ end in each game. Most of the action was in the other end and that kept at Ice goalies Charles Curiston and Tenzin Mint extremely busy.
“It was a good comeback weekend for us,” said Cougars captain Grady Thomas, who had three assists Sunday. “Compared to our few weekends before, we played a lot closer together as a team and we showed we could play better. We just had a lot of close games (against tough opponents earlier in the season) and for the future we’re just going to keep on rolling off this weekend. It was a big-point weekend.”
The two wins improved the Cougars’ record to 5-3-2-0, while Kootenay fell to 3-7-0-0.
The Cougars head to Victoria for two games this weekend against the South Island Royals.