The Cariboo Cougars picked the wrong time to fall flat at the Telus Cup, losing 6-1 to the Saint Francois Blizzard Thursday night.
Hunter Floris continued his scoring streak lighting the lamp 7:32 into the first period, putting the past Phillipe Gaudreault to put the Cats up 1-0.
In the second, Pierrick Dube scored his first of three goals, completing a three-way scoring play from Vincent Guy and Thomas Ferland.
Saint Francois took control of the game later in the period when Maxime Collin tucked another past Cariboo goaltender Zach Wickson for a 2-1 after 40 minutes.
The onslaught continued in the third with four more goals from Jakob Pelletier, Samuel Dickner, plus two more from Dube, who completed the hat-trick.
GOAL! Pierrick Dubé finishes his hat trick to put the @blizzardaaa up 6-1 with five minutes to go. #TELUSCup
— TELUS Cup (@HC_TELUSCup) April 28, 2017
Wickson was pulled just before the halfway point of the period after giving up the fifth goal to Dickner.
He made 41 saves on 46 shots before giving way to Marcus Allen, while Gaudreault stopped 38 pucks in the Blizzard cage.
Blizzard Head Coach Martin Laperriere says some key early saves set the tone for the offensive outburst.
“Both goalies did very well early on and once we were able to get a couple our offensive confidence came back and I thought we played pretty tight defensively after that. Our goalie stood on his head for the whole night and I like our position a lot more than when we started the game.”
Victoire du @blizzardaaa ✌️???!#TELUSCup pic.twitter.com/lSv9nLB89Y
— Blizzard Midget AAA (@blizzardaaa) April 28, 2017
Saint Francois has another huge game on Friday against the 2-2 Leduc Oil Kings, and Laperriere says they have their work cut out for them.
“The last game I saw they had three guys back on the blue line and fore-check with two and they try and shut you down by not giving you anything off the rush so we’re going to have to find a way to move the puck north.”
Cougars Head Coach and GM Trevor Sprague says they were outclassed by a large margin in the final 40 minutes.
“We didn’t have the effort we needed in the final two periods, I think we underestimated who we were playing against, they outcompeted us and won battles for the puck.”
With a short turnaround and a must-win game against the Mississauga Rebels on Friday night at 6PM, Sprague feels the time is now for his older group to write the ship.
“I think what you are going to see with that is the character in our dressing room. If we’ve got the character to bounce back and play the full 60 minutes the way we need to play because we deserve to be here or we can go out in play and decide that we don’t deserve to be here and embarrass ourselves. Basically it comes down to leadership.”
Cougars forward Trey Thomas left the game with a lower-body injury and his status for Friday’s game is uncertain.
Marcus Allen will get the start in goal and Ty Kolle will draw back into the line-up after being a healthy scratch the past two games.
Cariboo drops to 1-2-1 at the Telus Cup.
GAME OVER! The @blizzardaaa score six unanswered to beat the @cariboocougars 6-1. Statistics: https://t.co/rI6DsGfo6M #TELUSCup pic.twitter.com/UTwLIiFd1j
— TELUS Cup (@HC_TELUSCup) April 28, 2017
In earlier action, the Rebels punched their ticket to the semi-finals after a 1-0 victory over the Cape Breton West Islanders.
Rebels goalie Christian Purboo pitched a 12-save shutout and says his team has battled hard to get to this point.
“We have a lot of skilled guys on our team like Elijah Gonsalves where he scored some clutch goals in the playoffs and brought a lot of hope that we were going to win our region.”
GAME OVER! The Mississauga Rebels hang on to blank the @CBWestIslanders 1-0. Statistics: https://t.co/0oONk822fp #TELUSCup pic.twitter.com/EG7Gm43mZS
— TELUS Cup (@HC_TELUSCup) April 28, 2017
The Regina Pat-Canadians picked up their first win on Thursday, outlasting Leduc 6-4.
Regina is 1-2-1, while the Oil Kings hold steady at 2-2.
The Pat-Canadians play Cape Breton (2-2) at 10AM, while Leduc play the Blizzard at 2PM.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
