For a second straight tournament, a Cariboo Hockey development program cruised their way to the final game, but were then met by a scoring-superior team.
The Cariboo Major Bantam Cougars were in the hunt for the 2020 Okanagan Classic tournament title and even had to survive two shootouts in the playoff round to earn a spot in the gold medal match.
Another team’s ‘pursuit,’ however, spoiled the Prince George-based team’s chances of ultimate success, taking a 10-3 beating from Kelowna’s Pursuit of Excellence (POE) Hockey Academy Sunday morning (Feb. 2).
Cariboo broke the goose eggs just 67 seconds in, but that 1-0 score is the only lead they ever saw yesterday as POE then potted six unanswered goals spanning two periods of play, including one short-handed.
The Cougars managed to light some sort of fire before going into the second intermission by netting two goals back-to-back, one with 42 clicks left in the middle frame, and cutting the lead in half at 6-3.
The third period and Okanagan Classic crown belonged to POE, scoring four more goals in the stanza, two on power-plays, for the 10-3 final.
Major Bantam Cats' goal-scorers were affiliate Cameron Schmidt, Caleb Poitras and Harrison Simmons, with assists in the game from Ryan Toor, Anthony Duhamel and Carter Hesselgrave.
After finishing with a round-robin record of 2-1, Cariboo needed shootouts to win their quarter- and semi-final games against Okanagan Hockey Academy and St. Albert respectively.
In both situations, goaltender Jaiden Jakubowski had to stop the opponent’s final shooter to advance his team to the next round.
The final scores were as follows:
- Semis = 3-2 shootout win over St. Albert Sabres
- Quarters = 2-1 shootout win over OHA Prep
- Preliminary = 4-2 loss to North Island Silvertips
- Preliminary = 8-3 win over Delta Hockey Academy
- Preliminary = 6-4 win over Knights of Columbus Squires
There were 12 participating teams at the 2020 Okanagan Classic, which invites clubs from across B.C., Alberta and even Washington state.
The Cariboo Major Bantam Cougars only have six games left on the 2019-20 regular season before playoffs, currently sitting fourth in the B.C. standings with a record of 11-11-0-2.
Four of those tilts are on home ice in Prince George, two this weekend against the Vancouver North West Major Bantam Hawks at Kin and CN Centres.
Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 8) and 12:45 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 9).
Hardest shot at 89MPH was Braden Vennard from Cariboo. He also took home an Apple Watch! pic.twitter.com/r1RfMx83JH
— Okanagan Classic AAA Hockey Tournaments (@Okanaganclassic) February 1, 2020
