Jared Cowen's first trip to the penalty box cost the Spokane Chiefs a goal.
His second skate to the sin bin was even more costly.
In the end, though, nobody was breathing a bigger sigh of relief than the Chiefs captain after last night's game.
And nobody planned to sleep better on the bus ride home to Washington state.
"No kidding. It'll be a lot better," he understated.
Cowen, the big blueliner who you can expect to see on Canada's world junior squad, had a horrible view of the action thanks to his two penalties.
With the score tied 1-1 in the second period, Kyle Beach appeared to put the Chiefs ahead with a powerplay goal. However, Cowen, who plays in front of the opposition net on the man-advantage was called for slashing.
"That happens to me all the time, so I just gave it back," Cowen said. "Nobody ever gets slashing calls on me, so I didn't see why I got one."
Even worse, though, was being in the box for tripping when Calgary star Joel Broda scored to make it a 2-1 Hitmen lead.
"It's probably the worst two minutes you can possibly go through, especially in the third period when we were tied there. I think it hurts more when you're the captain. You're supposed to be the guy who's not in the box," Cowen said. "Hopefully, that never happens again."
His saving grace was the late goals by Mitch Wahl and Tyler Johnson to give the Chiefs a 3-2 win.
The Chiefs finished a three-game Alberta trip with wins over Edmonton and Calgary to go with a loss to Red Deer.
"There's a big difference between 1-2 and 2-1, especially on a road trip. That was big for us," Cowen said. "I'll miss the next game (due to the Team WHL-Russia series), but when we play Everett, I think this will be a big momentum game for us."
