U18 Canadians Split with Second-Place Cougars

The U18 AAA Greater Vancouver Canadians bounced back nicely against the second-place Cariboo Cougars on Sunday after suffering a lopsided defeat the day before, earning a split in their weekend series (Nov. 25-26) at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

With the series split, the Canadians improved their record to 4-9-1-0, five points out of sixth place in the U18 division with two games in hand.

On Saturday, the Canadians scored first but allowed five goals in the second period as Cariboo went on to win 10-3. Six different players scored for the Cougars, while Yashas Jain scored twice for GVC and Maxfeld Shin scored the other. The Cougars, who entered the weekend with an 11-2-1-0 mark, outshot the Canadians 42-25. 

Sunday’s game, though, was a different story, as the Canadians won 5-3 to earn a split in the series. The Canadians came out firing right off the bat, outshooting the Cougars 20-10 in the first period. Cohen Smith finally broke through for GVC when he scored with 10.9 seconds remaining in the first for a 1-0 lead. The Canadians made it 2-0 early in the second when Kaden Meyer scored his first of the season just 39 seconds into the period, and the score stayed that way until the Cougars scored twice in the final 1:31 of the second, including the tying goal with only 15.4 seconds left. Cariboo then went ahead 3-2 early in the third, but the Canadians tied the game with 8:25 left when Meyer intercepted a pass and fed the puck to Graham Kilpatrick, who made it 3-3. Dawson Sucke put GVC ahead for good with 7:49 remaining, and Massimo Ardizzoni added an empty-net goal with 47.3 seconds left. 

Next up for the U18 Canadians, a weekend series against the 1-15-0-0 Vancouver Island Royals (Dec. 2-3) at the Richmond Oval. The Saturday game is at 2:30 p.m., while the Sunday contest is at 8:30 a.m. Both games can be seen on playfullscreen.com.