Giants Strike First In Major Midget Final

By Kelly Sharp

    One of the many battles on the boards in game one of the Major Midget Final at Kin One

Vancouver Northwest Giants took a page out of the Cariboo Cougars game plan to take game one in the best-of- three BC Hockey Major Midget final before a near capacity of 739 at the Kin One Centre in Prince George. The Giants used a strong forecheck to score what proved to be the winner in the first period of a 4-1 victory over the  major midget Cougars. Pressure down low, produced the go-ahead goal by the Giants Shane Harle , 1:16 after Ryan Howse had chipped in a point shot on the power play to pull the Cariboo Cougars into a 1-1 tie. Vancouver added power play goals in the second and third period to move within a victory of the MML championship. Both goalies played well. Damien Ketlo faced 28 Vancouver shots, Kyle Nielsen turned aside 28 of 29 Prince George shots.

“We didn’t crash the net as hard as we wanted to,” Cariboo Cougars assistant coach Brent Williams said. He added the Giants disciplined defensive game is the reason they allowed the fewest goals in the league.

“The guys battled hard they finished the checks, that’s what we wanted,” said Williams about the physical affair.

 “They (Prince George) was a terrific hockey team all year, we know they have the firepower we have to play a more controlled game and make sure we score on what chances we get,” Vancouver Northwest head coach Grant Kerr said. Landon Ferraro, the son of former NHLer Ray Ferraro, was the opportunist on two Vancouver scoring chances in game one.

Similar to last weekend, the Cariboo Cougars will go into Saturday night’s game with their season on the line. Gametime is 8:30 PM at Kin One.

“I think we will be fine, same thing as last week we were a little frustrated, we are not use to that, not having things go are way,” said Brent Wiilliams.

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