Tyler Brough knows his Cariboo Cougars did not live up to their own expectations at the Mac's tournament.
Otherwise they would have wrapped up a playoff spot long before they got thrown into a tough herd Friday night in Calgary trying to corral the Calgary Buffaloes.
The Cougars have already proven they are one of the top teams in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League - they're only two points out of first place with two-thirds of the season now complete. But their Mac's playoff hopes started to crumble in their second game of the tournament when they blew a 5-0 lead and had to settle for a 5-5 tie with the Swift Current Legionnaires, then lost the next day 2-0 to the Knights of Columbus Pats of Edmonton.
That painted the Cougars into a corner, needing to defeat the heavily-favoured Buffaloes, the second-ranked midget team in Alberta, to even have a hope of making it to the playoffs. As it turned out, the Buffaloes outshot the Cougars 54-15 and despite the heroic efforts of Cats goalie Marcus Allen, defeated them 5-3.
"Marcus was the only reason we had a chance at being in that game, that and our power play, but Marcus was the backbone for the whole week as well," said Cougars head coach Tyler Brough.
"It's just unfortunate we left it down to the last game. We should have been playing for first in our pool (Friday) night, not for our tournament lives."
After tying Swift Current, Brough said his team took their Edmonton opponents too lightly and were not mentally prepared.
"I don't think we thought they were going to be that good," said Brough. "We look at their record (Knights of Columbus is 13-9-2 this season in the north division of the Alberta triple-A league) and we kind of downplay them a bit, but when you get to that tournament every team shows up ready and that's got to be us too."
Their special teams play in Calgary was one of the bright spots of the Cougars, who opened the tournament with a 10-0 win over the Carolina Junior Hurricanes. Power-play goals from Brandon Dent and Brennan Malgunas gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead into the first intermission and Hunter Floris scored while shorthanded to tie the game 3-3 heading into the third period.
"We knew we were up against a big test in the Buffaloes," said Brough. "There were a lot of penalties in the game and our PK did a great job and power play did its job. Five-on-five, we've got to find ways to generate more scoring chances, which we've known for awhile. It's just not where it needs to be."
Brough says his team won't lack for motivation when they resume their league schedule at the BCHMML Showcase in Kelowna, Jan. 13-14, a two-game set against the league-leading Valley West Hawks. The Hawks (2-0-2) went without a loss in the Mac's preliminary round but finished third and out of the playoffs behind the Calgary Northstars and Regina Pat Canadians. The Fraser Valley Thunderbirds (3-1-0) won their pool to advance.
"At the start of the year we all had some team goals and winning the Mac's was one of them, and winning the league and the playoffs are two and three," said Brough. "We lost one opportunity because I didn't feel we were prepared enough mentally as a team and let's learn from it.
"Let's make sure that going forward here we're not waiting until the third period to try to do something, let's do it in the first period. Let's not do it in Game 2, do it in Game 1."
