Even without starting golatender Marcus Allen, Mason Richey and the Cariboo Cougars banded together to pick up the pieces
The 17-year-old forward scored his second goal of the game late in overtimes as he sniped a shot top shelf to secure a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs on Saturday at Kin 1.
“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.”
Richey was all over the puck in round two for the Cougars as he also collected three assists 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 led 2-1 into the third period courtesy of Richey and Grady Thomas but the Chiefs didn’t blink on the big stage.
VNE found away to score a pair from Ryan Denney and James Bohn past Ryan Buchan to extend it to the extra frame.
Cariboo head coach Tyler Brough was more than pleased with the work of his defence and Buchan, despite allowing three goals on 11 shots.
“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 await the winner of the Vancouver Northwest Giants/Fraser Valley Thunderbirds series, which is tied at 1-1 with game three set for Sunday.
Game one of the BCMML Final will begin Friday at 6 PM from Kin 1.
-Cariboo Cougars
