The rink attendants at the Fort Forum might need to change the lightbulbs when it comes to the goal lights.
Keegan Goulet’s wrist shot with the 3:33 remaining in the third period eluded the glove hand of Rush goaltender Rebecca Noble to give the Northern Capitals a dramatic 5-4 victory on Sunday in Fort Saint James.
It was the first time all season the Caps dethroned the stacked 19-2-1-0 Fraser Valley squad – something veteran forward Brooklyn Hutchings told MyPGNow.com was weighing on their mind.
“It was very exciting to beat them. The girls were going and we took it to them.”
We have earned the weekend split with the @RushFMAAA . It was a great game and a great weekend! @BCEHL #defendthenorth #winterclassic pic.twitter.com/sYCG1IElgw
— Northern Capitals (@NCapitalsfmaaa) January 23, 2022
The Caps held a 1-0 edge after 20 minutes thanks to a power–play marker from Vanderhoof product Ella Boon who went top-shelf on Noble.
The offensive floodgates opened in the middle period, with both teams combing for six goals.
Less than a minute in, Boon spotted Hailey Armstrong streaking past the Rush blueline accepted a tape-to-tape pass and went bar-down to extend the lead.
Just over four minutes later, it was Armstrong who was in a giving mood, who found Hutchings deep inside the Fraser Valley zone making it 3-0.
After Vienna Rubin (Fraser Valley) and Goulet (Caps) traded goals, the Caps found themselves in penalty trouble and it would prove costly.
Gillian Lapierre took advantage of an Anysley D’Ottavio feed, burying it past Capitals netminder Sierra Eagles, cutting the lead to 4-2.
Before the buzzer sounded, Fraser Valley cashed in on another power-play as a D’Ottavio point shot went off the body of Leah Barnard and into the net making it a one-goal game.
D’Ottavio’s stellar play continued late into the third period as she went bar-down on Eagles to even the score with eight minutes remaining.
Despite giving up a pair of three-goal leads to the Rush, there was no panic in the Caps demeanor.
“I just told the girls to keep their heads up. We have to stick together and I wanted this win just as much as the rest of them and we just focused on putting our heads down and staying hard at work,” said Boon.
The game was originally scheduled to be played outdoors at the Ernie Sam Memorial Arena but the venue needed to be changed due to poor ice conditions.
“I understand where the organizers were coming from, they are worried about our safety and everything and it’s disappointing. I mean, I’ve never gotten to play on the outdoor rink so I was personally pretty excited but it is what it is, “ said Lindsay Goncalves, Caps forward.
Armstrong finished the game with one-goal and three assists, helping the Caps move within six points of Fraser Valley for top spot in the BCEHL’s U-18 Female AAA division.
“It was nice, we had our line clicking and that was really good. We got passing and then we started shooting today. Yesterday, we had a lot of shots but we couldn’t get them into the back of the net but we capitalized.”
D’Ottavio also recorded a four point effort in defeat for Fraser Valley – she has a league-high 35 points on the season, two ahead of Armstrong (33).
In U-18 boys action, it looked a lot like the 1980’s on the ice in terms of scoring as the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds won a wild 10-6 affair over the Cariboo Cougars.
After the T-Birds skated off with a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes, both teams combined for a whopping ten goals in the middle period.
A lack of discipline by the Cats led to a string of five straight goals for the T-Birds as Matteo Speranza, Tyler Pretty, Alyandro De Leon, Gavin Giesbrecht, and Cale Colwell stretched the advantage to 8-2.
Cariboo found a way to claw back later in the period Keenan Holland, Marek Mamic, Decker Mujcin, and Tye Peters lit the lamp, cutting the deficit down to a pair.
However, a second goal by Giesbrecht towards the end of the period found its way through the five-hole of Tysen Smith who came on in relief of Vanderhoof product Damien Knackstedt who allowed six goals before being pulled.
T-Birds netminder Nicholas Cristano was also given the hook after allowing six goals and gave way to Thomas Agnew who shut out the Cougars the rest of the way.
Sprenza and Pretty both had two-goal games for Fraser Valley while Brendan Ruskowski and Antonio Bevacqua potted singles.
The Thunderbirds improved to 14-8-3-1, six points up on Cariboo for 4th place in the ten-team league.
Cariboo is scheduled to play the Vancouver Northwest Hawks (17-5-1-1) next Saturday and Sunday in Vancouver.
He come out short in this high scoring affair. Fraser Valley completes the sweep this weekend.
Thank you to all our fans who came out to support this amazing event, and thank you to everyone who helped put this all together! #defendthenorth pic.twitter.com/gX1WkD40tB
— Cariboo Cougars U18 AAA (@cariboocougars) January 23, 2022