Was it in or wasn’t it?
Hudson Getzlaf needed no convincing when he saw the puck ricochet in and out of the top corner of the net behind goalie Jaxson Dikur 4:26 into overtime to decide the BC Elite Hockey League U18 championship.
While his Okanagan Rockets teammates swarmed the left winger in celebration of their 3-2 victory, tossing gloves and helmets to the ice Sunday at Kin 1, the Cariboo Cougars, shocked and stunned by what had just happened, hoped a replay would grant them a reprieve and allow them to continue playing for the provincial title.
But the goal — which bulged the net, according to witnesses in close proximity — counted, and the Rockets are off to the Pacific regional playoffs as B.C. champions.
“It was just a good tip from Nathan Juch there, got us up on a 2-on-1, and I saw the top corner was open and just knifed it,” said Getzlaf. “I know it went in for sure.
“This feels amazing, I’ve never had a feeling this good.”
The 16-year-old from Kelowna is a first cousin of soon-to-be Hockey Hall of Fame forward Ryan Getzlaf. Now, Hudson has a provincial championship game-winner to brag about the next time he sees him at a family reunion.
“That was a hard-fought battle. For both teams, it was a war, and I’m proud of the team that we came out on top,” said Rockets captain Logan Jugnauth, a signed Prince George Cougars prospect. “I was right there (on the ice when Getzlaf scored), and you just black out. I didn’t think the puck went in at the start — it came out really fast — but the ref called it a goal and we won.”
The play that won it started at the Okanagan blue line. Cariboo defenceman Carson Brookes was late joining the play from centre ice and rushed in to try to keep the puck in at the blue line. Juch got to it first, chipped it ahead to spring Getzlaf free, and he buried the only Grade-A chance of overtime.
“It was a war all the way, losing Dion (Schraeder), our top goal scorer, and the players just rallied around him,” said Rockets head coach Eric Blais. “We played gutsy hockey, that’s a very good hockey team, and we got a couple of bounces. That’s hockey. Some players just step up. We made a lucky play at the blue line, the guy missed it, and we went in. It was a helluva series.”
The Rockets got themselves in penalty trouble midway through the second period, starting when Kylen Martens was sent off for a double minor for making head contact. About a minute later, while killing the penalty, Rockets forward Schraeder went knee-on-knee with Cariboo defenceman Ben Fofonoff, and the Williams Lake product took the worst of it. He went down writhing in pain and had to be helped off the ice, while Schraeder, who finished second in the league scoring race, was banished to the dressing room after receiving a major penalty and game misconduct.
That gave the Cougars five full minutes of power-play time and nearly three minutes of a 5-on-3 advantage. The near-full-house crowd of about 700 couldn’t help but anticipate fireworks, but the Cats could not light the fuse.
The Rockets’ penalty killers blocked shots, kept sticks in the passing lanes and formed a wall around goalie Finn McKiernan to clear out any rebounds. The Cougars fumbled passes and had a difficult time getting their shots through, managing just one or two quality shots on goal in that extended power play.
Twenty-seven seconds after Okanagan returned to even strength, the Cougars finally got what they were after. Blake Collison fed a slot pass to linemate Miller Tedesco, and he fired it away with a low shot for a 2-1 lead at the 17:27 mark.
But with less than a minute left in the period, after winning the draw in the Cariboo end, the puck came to Okanagan’s 16-year-old centre Hayden Laing. He turned and fired a low shot that found its way in to even the score.
The Rockets won the first game of the best-of-three series 4-2 on Friday, and the Cougars took Game 2 Saturday, also by a 4-2 score.
The Cougars got the quick start they were looking for Sunday and opened the scoring 8:34 in. Smithers product Ryan Richter led the rush and took the puck deep. Nicholas Gordon took the pass in the slot, stickhandled the puck a couple of times before tucking in a low wrister to the short side behind McKiernan.
Late in the period, Cougars’ Miller Tedesco had just stepped out of the penalty box when Rockets defenceman Martens unloaded a shot that ticked off the blade of Cariboo d-man Josh Gendron between the legs of goalie Dikur to tie it up 1-1.
The Cougars outshot the Rockets 36-29.
Cougars head coach Tyler Brough called it the toughest loss he’s suffered in his 10 years as Cougars head coach.
“It’s unfortunate, we had plenty of opportunities to put them away and we didn’t, and that’s what can happen when you let teams hang around,” said Brough. “Hopefully, the guys that are moving on learn from it, and the guys who are coming back have that in their belly and just remember it.
“At the start of the year, we knew we had a solid group and there was a lot of structure and systems we needed to put in place. We had great leadership passed on from the group last year, and they had that burning desire in them from the way they went down last year (losing in a three-game semifinal to Vancouver North East Chiefs).
“It’s a solid group in there that we believed we could win it all, not only our league but moving on. Our goal was the Telus Cup, and everything short of that is very disheartening and a letdown. That’s because the group is so strong, and they believe in each other. It’s tough.”
Captain Grady Gustafson and assistant captain Jack Tidsbury had a hard time coming to terms with playing what was their last game as Cariboo Cougars, while their teary-eyed teammates wandered out from the dressing room into the concourse still dressed in their jerseys, receiving hugs from family members.
“I’m lost for words, this is an incredible group and we deserved better,” said Gustafson. “It’s a terrible way to lose a championship game on a missed call, but you’ve got to look in the past and just think about how much good this team did and brought for us.”
Tidsbury said the game swung on the missed opportunities the Cougars had during that second-period power play.
“I’ve got to give kudos to their goalie (McKiernan), he played unreal and saved a lot of our shots, we just couldn’t find a way to get it past him,” said Tidsbury. “This is my fifth year with Cariboo and it’s going to sting for a while, but you’ve got to move on eventually.
“I was confident heading into overtime, we dominated 5-on-5, it felt like, and it was a lucky 2-on-1. That’s what happens.”
The Rockets are the youngest team in the BCEHL U18 division, and surviving a nail-biting series with Cariboo and beating them in their own barn bodes well for their next playoff challenge coming early next month. Fourteen of the 20 Rockets are age-eligible to return next year.
“I didn’t expect us to be in this position, to be honest. We’re very fortunate,” said Blais, who won the provincial title with the Rockets in 2023.
Okanagan will advance to the best-of-three Pacific regional championship, which starts April 5 in the home of the Alberta champions, either Calgary or Sherwood Park.
The Pacific winner will advance to the Telus Cup in Chilliwack, April 21-27.
