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New-look Cariboo club filled with potential

This Cariboo Cougars team is much different than the one that skated to regular-season and playoff titles in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League in 2016-17. The current club features just five guys who were full-timers last season.
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This Cariboo Cougars team is much different than the one that skated to regular-season and playoff titles in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League in 2016-17. The current club features just five guys who were full-timers last season.

Despite the changeover in personnel, the Cougars are still projected by new head coach Tyler Brough to be an elite squad in the 11-team league. In his opinion, another championship year is entirely possible.

"I honestly believe we are (championship calibre)," said Brough, who will be behind the bench today when the Cougars open their 2017-18 schedule against the Valley West Hawks

(4 p.m., Kin 1). "I think we'll be in the top three or four in the league, if not higher. It's a hardworking group and they're hungry. I think we start from the goaltending out with Marcus Allen, who I believe was one of the best goalies in the league last year, and knowing him he's going to push to be the best guy this year. So having him as the backbone is a very good start."

Allen, 17, is coming off a season that saw him post an 18-2-1 record, a mark that was second to Vancouver Northeast Chiefs stopper Kolby Matthews (21-3-0). Allen also had a 2.01 goals-against average, which put him behind only Cariboo teammate Zach Wickson (1.70) and Matthews (1.81).

Allen is one of those five regulars back from the 2016-17 Cougars. The others are defenceman Brennan Malgunas and forwards Mason Richey, Hunter Floris and Brandon Rowley. Several other players - nine to be exact - were part of the Cariboo program as affiliates last season so they are familiar with the league and the expectations that come with being a member of the Cougars. These nine - defencemen Max Arnold, Colton Kitchen, Jacob Gendron and Zach Minaker, and forwards Craig Macdonald, Brandon Dent, Braeden Young, Grady Thomas and Lane Goodwin - played a combined 57 regular-season games in Cariboo uniforms. Individually, Macdonald made 20 appearances and Dent made 12 before they landed with the Coast Inn of the North midget Tier 1 Cougars and helped that team win a provincial banner. Arnold, Kitchen and Young were also part of the Coast Inn Cats.

Minaker, meanwhile, made his Cariboo debut at the Telus Cup national championship tournament, which was hosted by the Cougars.

This year's captain is Richey, a 17-year-old Terrace product who led the team in goals last season (30) and was second in points (55). Those totals and Richey's team-first mentality got him noticed by the Western Hockey League's Kamloops Blazers, who had him at training camp earlier this month. For Brough, Richey was the obvious choice to wear the 'C' on his jersey.

"His character and his qualities on the rink and away from the rink, he's the same person - he doesn't change the way he goes about things, and him being a third-year guy doesn't hurt as well," Brough said. "He came back from Kamloops and he could have taken a few weeks to get comfortable and come down to our level but he came in and brought that level to us. He's been a true leader right from the beginning."

Richey's assistants are Floris, Rowley and Minaker. Last season, Floris was new to the Cougars and blossomed as a player. At the prestigious Mac's Midget Tournament in Calgary during the Christmas break, he was the overall scoring leader (eight goals, 13 points in six games), was named a first all-star and was promptly listed by the Tri-City Americans of the WHL.

"Floris is the same thing (as Richey)," Brough said. "He came back (from Tri-City's camp) with a great mentality. He's a leader on and off the ice. They're two of the hardest working guys on our team. They're picking up pucks (after practice) and filling up water bottles and that kind of thing and that's exactly what I want to see from my leaders. It shows the young guys the right way to do things."

Today's game between the Cougars and Hawks marks the start of a 40-game regular season for both teams. They'll also clash on Sunday at 10 a.m.

Brough, head coach after two years as an assistant to Trevor Sprague (who is now general manager), anticipates a stiff challenge from the visitors.

"They went through the preseason 9-0 so we're fully expecting them to be a good team," Brough said. "(General manager) Rob Evers has always assembled a pretty good team and from all accounts they've got a couple guys back from juniors, like us, so we're expecting them to be one of the top-end teams in the league."