PENTICTON -- It’s become rather apparent over the last couple of seasons that taking Prairie Hockey Academy lightly in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League U17 prep league championship tournament is something you do at your own peril.
For the second straight season, the Cougars entered the Division I playoffs as one of the tournament’s lowest seeds, and for the second straight season, they advanced all the way to the championship final before falling in the gold medal game.
This time, PHA entered the event ranked 12th overall -- lowest of all Division I teams -- after putting together a 19-15-2 record in the regular season.
Prairie Hockey got off to a great start in round robin action, though, taking a 3-1 win over sixth-seed Â鶹ÊÓƵ Alberta Hockey Academy and then pulling off a huge upset in their second contest with a 5-1 win over top seed Okanagan Hockey Academy -- a team that had lost only three times in 33 regular-season games.
Things didn’t go as well in their final preliminary round game, where they’d fall 8-2 to Edge School and finish second in their pool.
That was still enough to land PHA in the semifinal, where they’d stun OHA Edmonton with a 5-4 shootout win.
Three straight second period goals gave Edmonton a 3-1 lead midway through the game, but Nixon Friesen would make it a one-goal contest with a power play goal with 5:12 to play in the frame.
Edmonton restored their two-goal lead 24 seconds into third, only for Kade Kahovec to get PHA back within one at the 9:34 mark before Ethan Unger scored the tying goal with 5:11 remaining in regulation.
Overtime solved nothing, and Luke Pratte and Jamie Kirwan would score in the shootout while PHA goaltender Drake Mooney stopped both shooters he faced, securing the upset win.
Hogan Hickman had PHA’s other goal in the first period.
Unger finished with three points in the game, while Seamus Dillon had two assists.
Things didn’t go as well in the final, as Rink Academy Kelowna took a 1-0 edge out of the first period and held that lead until the third, when they scored two goals in the first 4:09 to go up 3-0.
Dillon got one back with 10:45 to play, but that’s as close as Prairie Hockey would get, and Kelowna would add an empty netter with 1:40 to play.
Mooney stopped 46 shots in the loss.
