The Cariboo Cougars don't need to be reminded.
From top to bottom among the eight playoff teams in the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League, there isn't much that separates them on the ice.
As regular season champions, the Cougars (29-8-3) had the luxury of opening the playoffs at home last weekend against the eighth-place Fraser Valley Thunderbirds in a three-game quarterfinal series. While it was nice for the Cougars not to have travel, they came close to having their season end prematurely when the T-Birds pushed them to a third and deciding game. That turned into a nailbiter the Cougars eventually won 4-2 with an empty netter.
The Vancouver Northwest Giants weren't so lucky. They finished second in the league, five points behind the Cougars, then ran into the seventh-place South Island Royals and got eliminated, losing in overtime in the deciding Game 3.
Now those Royals are in Prince George, aiming to pull off another postseason stunner at the expense of the Cougars in a best-of-three semifinal series, which starts today at 5 p.m. at Kin 1.
"They're a team that's going to come in here ands want to make a big bang right off the bat," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague. "If they can knock the Giants off, they can knock us off. It doesn't matter if you finish first or seventh in these playoffs.
"Their goaltender is hot, they had three games that went into overtime so you know they're going to play 60 minutes of hockey. Both teams are having great goaltending right now and both teams are coming in hot, which is good."
The Cougars won the regular season series 3-1. South Island finished with an 18-17-5 record, 20 points behind the Cougars.
Forward Brandon Tutte led the Royals in scoring this season with 49 points, including 13 goals. Other players to watch are forwards Ben Berard (21g-25a-46pts), Royals captain Cam Coutre (17-23-40) and Tyler Preziuso (16-24-40).
"Cam Coutre is their top guy, he hounds pucks and he makes people look bad," said Sprague. "He has a physical attribute to his game and he's a great leader where he gets his players behind him."
Austin Rodin is the go-to guy in goal for the Royals. He finished the season with a 13-4-2 record and 3.07 goals-against average and played in all three playoff games. He's backed in the nets by Lane Delfs, who played for the Cougars last season.
Goaltending has been a position of strength for the Cougars and they will be leaning on Griffen Outhouse to get the job done stopping pucks. Outhouse is the league's top-ranked goalie after posting a 15-5-2 record and 2.04 goals-against average. The native of Likely, who turns 17 today, is a little bit banged up with an upper-body injury but Sprague thinks he will be ready to play.
The same can't be said about Dorrin Luding, the Cougars' other goalie, sidelined with a high ankle sprain he suffered a month ago in a game against the Giants. In his absence, the Cougars have called up Alex Hinche from the Prince George Tier 2 midget team.
The Cougars have been focusing on special teams play in practice this week. Their power play sputtered in the Fraser Valley series and they were guilty of taking too many unnecessary penalties.
"We've got to find a way to score goals on the power play and we have to be disciplined," said Sprague. "We took some undisciplined penalties in that last game that made it a close game so our guys need to pay attention to that. We have to take the game to them, that's playoff hockey if you want to win."
Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., also at Kin 1. If Game 3 is required the teams would meet on the same ice Sunday at 10 a.m.
In the other BCMMHL semifinal, which also starts tonight, the third-place Vancouver Northeast Chiefs host the fifth-place Greater Vancouver Canadians in Port Coquitlam.
