The Cariboo Cougars will try for a Royal flush in the first round of playoffs.
The Cougars, who finished the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League regular season with a pair of weekend wins in Kelowna, will open the post-season with a best-of-three series against the South Island Royals. Game 1 between the second-seeded Cats and seventh-ranked Royals is Friday afternoon at Kin 1. The puck will drop at 3:30 p.m.
The second game is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, also at Kin 1. If a third game is required, it will start at 10 a.m. on Sunday in the same building.
During the regular season, the Cougars won all four games they played against the Royals. On Oct. 24-25 in Prince George, they skated to 4-0 and 5-2 victories. Then, on Jan. 16-17 in Shawnigan Lake and Lake Cowichan respectively, the Cougars prevailed 2-1 each day.
The Cougars completed the regular season with a 29-8-3 record, while the Royals went 15-18-7.
Other first-round match-ups are: the Valley West Hawks (33-6-1) vs. the Greater Vancouver Canadians (14-20-6); the Vancouver Northwest Giants (27-9-4) vs. the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs (17-15-8); and the Okanagan Rockets (23-12-5) vs. the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds (17-14-9).
The playoff champion will meet the Alberta winner in a Pacific regional championship series. That best-of-three-affair will send one club to the Telus Cup national tournament, April 19-24 in Quispamsis, N.B. The Cougars will host the 2017 Telus Cup.
The Cats ended their 2015-16 regular season with 3-1 and 6-4 victories against the Rockets.
