Talk about a flare for the dramatics.
The Cariboo Cougars showed that in spades on Sunday snatching a 4-3 decision from the Valley West Hawks in BC Major Midget Hockey League action.
Ex-Cougar Tyler Ho opened the scoring for the Hawks in the first period putting one past goalie Marcus Allen to make it 1-0 early on.
Cariboo responded before the end of the frame courtesy of Mason Richey for a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes.
Ho notched his second of the contest on clear-cut breakaway going five-hole on Allen to re-gain the advantage for Valley West.
It didn’t take long for the Cougars to reply back as Hunter Floris jammed one past former Cougars goalie Dorrin Luding making it a 2-2 game.
Then thing got interesting.
Allen went on to play the puck put of the crease and was rocked by Hawks forward Justyn Gurney which led a to line brawl.
Gurney received a five-minute major for interference plus a match penalty and a game misconduct.
Two other Hawks players were also kicked out of the game along with Cariboo forwards Darian Long and Riley Krane.
In the third, both teams traded goals once again with Jonas Leas lighting the lamp for the Hawks and Craig MacDonald for Cariboo.
During the 3 on 3 overtime Cougars defenceman Jeremy Gervais connected on a feed with Devin Sutton who saw a Dubois breaking to the net and put the winner past Luding to clinch the victory.
Cougars Head Coach, Trevor Sprague says the game was a bit of a roller-coaster. “Those are the types of games you want to be in as a coach, I was pretty excited after our team didn’t show up at all on Saturday and to do it against a goalie that played here last years means a lot to the guys.”
“You have to work hard to win games. It doesn’t matter how good you are if show up with the attitude to not work hard and think everything will be easy that’s not the case or how the game is played so today we came back with good hunger and bounce back with us getting the win.”
Ho had 6 points in 2 games against Cariboo this weekend including a 4 point game on Saturday during Valley West’s 8-0 win.
Kabir Gill, Sahvan Gill, Braydon Wick, Calder Newson, Justyn Gurney and Jonas Leas also added singles in the victory.
Cariboo is 5-1 while the VW is a point ahead at 5-0-1 on the season.
The Cougars travel to Whitehorse next weekend for a pair of games Saturday and Sunday against the Vancouver NE Chiefs.
Ticket packages for the 2017 Telus Cup at CN Centre are now available on-line or through the CN Centre Box Office.
Early-bird packages are $59 until December 31st and will increase to $79 on January 1st.
