They were hoping for more, but at least the Cariboo Cougars proved the Vancouver Northwest Giants are not invincible.
In a battle for first place in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League at Kin 1, the Giants avenged a 6-4 defeat Saturday night with a 5-2 win in the rematch Sunday.
Both games featured fast-paced action from start to finish, with plenty of hard hits, snappy pass plays, skillful shots, great goaltending -- just what you might expect from two teams battling for top-shelf bragging rights.
Max Reinhart, a 15-year-old Kootenay Ice draft pick and the younger brother of WHL players Max (Kootenay) and Griffin (Vancouver), was in on all but one of the Giants' goals Sunday with two goals and two assists. Alex Kerfoot had the other Vancouver goal. Reinhart's opened the scoring in the first period -- the only Vancouver goal at even strength. The other four came on power plays. Seb Lloyd and Jared Crossan replied for the Cougars.
"It was really rough out there and both teams battled hard but it was fun, and we were lucky to get the win," said Reinhart, who scored his first WHL goal during his four-game callup with Kootenay. "The chemistry was really there on the power play, we were moving the puck nicely. Now we want to get them down behind us so they have to chase us. We're in the driver's seat for the rest of the season, we just have to keep running it."
Down 3-2 heading in to the third period, the Cougars got caught flatfooted a few times and were forced to take penalties that took the steam out of any comeback attempts. The loss left the Cariboo Cats (16-6-0) in second place, two points behind the Giants (15-3-4).
"Our defence did a great job moving the puck up, we just didn't get into the zone as the forwards," said Cougars forward Harjas Grewal.
"We still can put a streak together like we did earlier and hopefully someone upsets them and we can still take first place. We've been 1-2 most of the year and these were the last two times we'll meet in the season, so everybody upped their intensity."
The gloves came off at the end of the second period and again at the 5:23 mark of the third period, a possible foreshadowing of more fireworks to come in the playoffs if the two teams meet again.
"There's a lot of history between the two organizations, they both play with a lot of intensity, a lot of speed, a lot of grit," said Giants head coach Todd Harkins. "Trevor (Cougars head coach Sprague) and I used to work together with the Westside Warriors (as scouts) so there a little bit of a rivalry between us. I know the league doesn't condone (fighting) but when you get two great teams with hate-to-lose attitudes things like that are going to happen and our refs did a pretty good job keeping things under control."
The Giants swept the Cougars on the season-opening weekend in Vancouver and also beat them last year in a quarterfinal playoff at the Mac's Major Midget tournament, which they eventually won.
"We've had their number," said Harkins. "We try to contain their size and their speed and their strength. They're not a big team but they're very strong and (on Sunday) we matched that with our intensity and our grit and that was the difference."
On Saturday, the Cougars overcame a 3-2 second-period deficit. Eli Jarvis helped himself to two goals and an assist, Tyson Witala, Chase Witala, Levon Johnson, and Justin Duncan also scored. Reinhart, Jackson Houck, Taylor Tanti and Sean Lan were the Giants goalscorers.
Jared Rathjen played both games in net for the Cougars.
