This road trip involved a plane.
The Cariboo Cougars major midget hockey team flew out of Prince George on Thursday night, bound for Whitehorse, Yukon. Today and Sunday at Takhini Arena, the Cougars will skate against the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs in a pair of league games. The contests will be part of a special Whitehorse hockey weekend, one that will include matches between the U16 Yukon Mustangs and Yellowknife Wolf-Pack and men's league action featuring the Whitehorse Huskies and Bonneyville Pontiacs.
"(Whitehorse) has always been called a hockey town," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague before the team boarded its Air North flight. "When they've got special events going on up there they sell out the arena so we're pretty excited to go up there and play in front of that fan base."
As the northernmost team in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League, the Cougars are eligible to draw players from the Yukon. While nobody on this year's club hails from that region, past Cariboo Cats from Whitehorse have included David Stephens, Brett Roulston, Drew Pettitt, Riley Pettitt, Kole Comin, Bryce Anderson and Dylan Cozens.
"The (Whitehorse) players that we've had play for us over the years have been fantastic people and really good players and guys that we like to have on our team," Sprague said. "They bring good character."
The cost of the trip has been shared between Air North, Yukon Hockey and the BCHMML, which collects fees each season from its players.
The second-place Cougars (5-1-0) and fourth-place Chiefs (4-0-0) will square off at 5:15 p.m. today and 10:45 a.m. on Sunday.
"I would expect they're going to be close games," Sprague said. "In exhibition we tied 2-2. (Chiefs head coach) Jamie Jackson and his coaching staff always have their team prepared to play, and obviously they knocked us out of the playoffs two years ago to go to the Pacific (regional championship series). They're a great organization and I'm really happy we get to play them up there, just based on how their team is structured and how they attack the game and how professional they are."
The Cougars are coming off a loss/win weekend against the Valley West Hawks in what was a battle for top spot in the 11-team BCHMML. The Hawks pasted a lethargic Cougars club 8-0 in the first game but the Cats fought back for a 4-3 overtime win the next day. The OT winner came off the stick of Daine DuBois, who finished a pretty passing play with less than a second remaining on the clock.
The games against the Hawks stood as a valuable learning experience for the Cougars, who are the host team for the 2017 Telus Cup national championship tournament.
"We have to come and be consistent," Sprague said. "Everybody likes to play their best game against the Cariboo Cougars because of the history of how we play as a hockey club and the prestige of saying, 'Hey, we knocked off the Cariboo Cougars.' And I think it amps up for every team in our league now that we're hosting the Telus Cup. Our guys didn't quite understand that the top teams in our league are going to play us harder and better and be more prepared to come at us based on us hosting that Telus Cup."
To make last Saturday's shellacking worse, veteran Cougars forward Trey Thomas took a hard bodycheck into the boards near centre ice and didn't get back up. The play happened late in the second period and Thomas - drifting in and out of consciousness - was finally removed from the rink via a spine board and stretcher and taken to hospital. He has been diagnosed with a concussion and, according to Sprague, will be out of action for four to five weeks. Thomas, a Williams Lake product who turns 17 next month, is not on the Whitehorse trip. Sprague said his spot in the Cariboo lineup will be filled by his cousin, Grady Thomas, who was a training camp attendee this year.
Also on the injury front, 17-year-old defenceman Jarin Sutton hasn't played yet this season because he's recovering from a broken wrist. Local product Jacob Gendron - a bantam Tier 1 player - is stepping in on the blueline and will be in uniform this weekend.
"It's going to be pretty interesting to see how he fits in against a top team in the league," Sprague said.
