The Cariboo Cougars will have a first-round bye and home-ice advantage in the second round of the playoffs.
The Cougars earned those rewards when they dominated the South Island Thunderbirds in a Saturday night game at Kin 1 and clinched second place in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League. The Cats beat the much weaker Thunderbirds 11-1. To put an exclamation point on the weekend, they skated to a 5-0 victory in Sunday's rematch.
"It was good, especially after clinching [Saturday] night, that the guys could come in and play pedal-down hockey," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. "We kept the momentum going and didn't really give them a chance to get back into it."
Nathan Warren was between the pipes for Sunday's shutout, his second in a row. On Feb. 12 in Chase, the 16-year-old Prince George product backstopped the Cougars to a 9-0 win against the Thompson Blazers.
"The team has been playing really well around me so they're making it a lot easier than it should be," said Warren, whose club outshot the T-birds 61-17 on Sunday. "The hardest part was just staying focused for 60 minutes. I think I did a pretty good job at it and I felt good out there."
In both games, the more physical Cougars controlled the boards and created opportunities off the cycle. They spent long stretches inside the South Island blueline and often looked like they were on power-plays even when the teams were at even strength.
Offensively, Eli Jarvis led the way on Sunday with two goals and two assists. Colton Manning, Logan Styler, Tanner Fjellstrom, Tyler Povelofskie and Colby Braaten also scored for the Cougars.
In the Saturday game, the Thunderbirds had no answer for Cariboo forward Nathan Craft. The powerful Craft, a 17-year-old from Kitimat, finished with a hat trick and three assists. His first two goals of the night, early in the first period, came eight seconds apart. On the second goal, right off the face-off, he skated into the South Island zone and ripped a wrist shot from the top of the circles past goaltender Alec Dillon.
Craft said his big game was a product of shooting the puck more and playing alongside skilled linemates Hayden-James Berra and Jake LeBrun.
In the opener, the Cougars also got goals from LeBrun (2), Jarvis, Josh Connolly, Michael Bell, Povelofskie, Berra and Styler. Josh Adkins, with a goal early in the third period, was the only South Island shooter who beat Cariboo goalie David Readman. The Cougars outshot the Thunderbirds 59-29.
With the wins, the Cats improved to 24-8-6. The Thunderbirds, 10th in the league standings, dropped to 3-28-7.
Playoffs will start on March 9 but the Cougars and first-place Vancouver Northwest Giants will be off until the following weekend.
The Cats will close out their regular season this coming Saturday and Sunday when they play road games against the Greater Vancouver Canadians (18-12-8).
"We're starting to play playoff hockey now so we'll make sure we carry it on against the Canadians," Craft said. "They'll be a good match-up and we might meet them in the playoffs."
