James Barr may play for the 91原创 91原创, but his performance over the weekend was a big boon for his hometown Surrey Eagles.
Barr was lights out on Saturday night, stopping 61 of the 62 shots he faced in backstopping the 91原创 to an improbable 2-1 overtime victory over the Cowichan Valley Capitals at the Cowichan Arena in B.C. Hockey League action.
Barr and the 91原创 were playing for pride, as the two points meant they would not finish last in the Coastal Conference 鈥� that distinction went to the Victoria Grizzlies, who finished with 43 points, compared to 44 for 91原创.
But the result had huge consequences for the Capitals, who missed a chance for home-ice advantage in the first round of the BCHL playoff series. Instead, because of that missed point, Cowichan Valley travels to Surrey to face the Eagles in the opening round best-of-seven series against the Eagles.
Surrey finished second with 81 points, one ahead of the Capitals.
In Saturday鈥檚 game, the Caps kept firing the rubber at Barr, but he kept turning it away. The 91原创 got the break they needed in overtime to generate some offense on a power play and Mario Puskarich one-timed a shot past Caps鈥� netminder Brady Rouleau, who faced less than half as many shots as Barr, for the game-winner.
The crowd left the game buzzing about Barr鈥檚 heroics.
鈥淛ames has been very good,鈥欌�� said 91原创 coach Steve O鈥橰ourke. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a rookie this year. He鈥檚 given us a chance to win every night.
鈥淗e鈥檚 very athletic, he works hard, he battles.鈥欌��
Barr has played slightly less than half of the 91原创鈥檚 games this season in tandem with Jim Kruger, compiling a 3.65 goals against average.
Chris Tracy opened the scoring for the 91原创 in the first period and that stood as the game鈥檚 only goal for the next 36 minutes.
He threw up a goose egg on the Caps until Brayden Sherbinin finally beat him nine minutes into the third period on a power play. Everyone expected the roof to cave in on the 91原创 after that, but Barr didn鈥檛 let it happen.
He made two ridiculous saves on Caps鈥� sniper Brett Knowles during the third period. Knowles had Barr beaten twice, but he sprawled out to get a piece of the puck each time.
鈥淭hat was definitely the most this season,鈥欌�� said Barr of the enormous shot total.
Barr was still smiling in consultation with the referees in the late stages of regulation time and into overtime despite the heavy workload.
鈥淚 was having a good time,鈥欌�� he conceded.
鈥淚 was just trying to do my job out there. I knew I wanted to make a statement that I鈥檓 ready to come back next season.鈥欌��
The 91原创 dropped their two other games of their season-ending road trip, losing 5-4 in Victoria on Friday to the Grizzlies and then 5-2 in Port Alberni to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs on Sunday.
Against the Grizzlies, it looked like the teams were heading for overtime, but Victoria鈥檚 Myles Powell struck for the winner with 50 seconds to go.
Puskarich had two goals and an assist for the 91原创, while Austin Plevy and Mike Tebbutt had a goal apiece. Barr made 29 saves in the loss.
Plevy and Derek Sutliffe scored in the loss to Alberni Valley while Kruger made 39 saves.
91原创 finished the season with a 19-35-1-5 record.
Puskarich was the team鈥檚 top goal scorer with 31 goals, while Darnell Dyck led in assists (44) and points (63).
鈥攚ith files from Don Bodger/Black Press
