Cowichan Valley ran into a juggernaut in the host Quesnel Thunder during the 8 a.m. game today (March 20) of the Midget Tier 2 Provincial Championship.
Cowichan opened the scoring at 4:26 of the first period when Kevin Stewart found the back of the net with assists going to Rhys Mazurenko and Thomas Webber.
They went into the first intermission with the one-goal lead.
However, the host club popped the equalizer in at 19:01 of the second stanza when Justin Salmons turned on the red light with assists going to DJ Sauve and Thomas Bubela.
The Thunder crashed the net and notched four unanswered goals in the period – Jacque Gilkerson (Sauve); power-play marker Kaden Merritt (Dyson Leneve); and Sam Inwood (Mike Wright).
Quesnel popped in another power-play marker at 13:45 of the third period for a 5-1 lead – Wright (Gilkerson).
The Thunder stepped off the gas a bit because they had another game at 4 p.m., and Cowichan took advantage and fired 11 shots at Quesnel goalie Kaden Ekstrom, who was outstanding and in the zone.
Cowichan Valley got their second goal at 3:32 of third when Brendan Hogg scored with assists going to Stewart and Webber.
Quesnel popped in one more marker with 4.2 second left on the clock – Colby Couturier (Leneve (Stefan Tipold).
In the end, Cowichan out shot the Thunder 33-21- 11-3 in the final frame.
Thunder head coach Gord Salmons said his boys started a little flat in the first 20 minutes again, but they came on really good in the second.
“Once we got that first goal, we started rolling. The power play was good and we got a couple nice passing goals.
“Specialty units is the key in this game… if you get power-play goals and have a good penalty kill, you’re good.”
The Vancouver Island squad’s fans were upset with the officiating because Quesnel took seven penalties for 14 minutes in the sin bin, Cowichan sat for 32 minutes on 12 penalties.
