Mason Richey made sure his second goal of the game turned out to be the most important one.
The 17-year-old forward sniped a shot top shelf in overtime to give the Cariboo Cougars a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs on Saturday to advance to their fourth consecutive BC Major Midget Hockey League Final.
Cariboo had to dig down deep to pull out the victory as they were without star goaltender Marcus Allen due to a hyper-extended knee suffered in game one on Friday.
Richey says he simply got it to the net despite the limited space given by Chiefs netminder Michael Harroch.
“Honestley, I didn’t see a whole lot, I saw little opening and thought to give it a try and sure enough it went in.”
OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN! Mason Richey with the snipe! Cougars win, Cougars win 4-3!!
?: MacDonald
⌚: 4:17. pic.twitter.com/w5USOzH04L— Cariboo Cougars (@cariboocougars) March 25, 2018
The third-year forward was a dominant force all series for the Cougars as he also collected a trio of helpers on Friday.
“I am hungary for another championship and as we get closer and closer it’s time to step up a little and now that we are in the final, I will have to do it a little more.”
The Cougars carried a 2-1 lead into the third period courtesy of Richey and Grady Thomas but the Chiefs didn’t go away quietly.
Despite having just seven shots through 40 minutes, VNE found away to score a pair from Ryan Denney and James Bohn to extend it to the extra frame.
Even though Cariboo allowed three goals on 11 shots, Cariboo head coach Tyler Brough was more than pleased with the work of his defence and backup goaltender Ryan Buchan.
“I am proud of that group in there, they buckled down and we didn’t have our starting goaltender in there and we gave up 11 shots today, which is pretty impressive. It might have been the best defensive game we played all year but we needed to – they are a young team that came out hard and was hungry, their backs were against the wall and we got the winner from a guy who has been with us for three years, the puck is on his stick in the slot and has made shots like that for a long time.”
The Cougars will now host the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds in the best of three series.
Game one of the BCMML Final will begin Friday night at 7:15 from Kin 1.
The OT hero, Mason Richey on his game-winner.#DefendTheNorth #BCMML pic.twitter.com/ND1YN4AC4p
— Cariboo Cougars (@cariboocougars) March 25, 2018