In past seasons, a game between the Cariboo Cougars and Vancouver Northwest Giants was often a fight for first place.
That won't be the case when the Cats and G-men collide tonight and Sunday at the Burnaby Winter Club. Nonetheless, the Cariboo club is anticipating a fiery continuation of a long-running rivalry.
"Getting in to play against the Giants is always fun," said Cougars head coach Bryan MacLean. "There have been a lot of close battles with that team over the last number of years. It's a lot of fun to play those guys and it will be a hard test for us but we're pretty excited to be going down there."
The sixth-place Cougars take an 8-9-1 record into the doubleheader, while the second-place Giants sit at 14-3-1. In the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League, the Giants trail only the Okanagan Rockets (15-2-1).
For four consecutive seasons -- 2009-10 to 2012-13 -- the Giants and Cougars finished first and second respectively in the standings. And, for the first three of those years, the Giants knocked off the Cougars in the playoff final.
This season, the 15- to 17-year-old Cougars are stocked with players who are new to major midget hockey so they are learning as they go along. MacLean is pleased with the progress he has witnessed, including last weekend when the Cats gave the Rockets a tough couple of games in Kelowna. The Cougars fell by scores of 5-2 and 6-4 -- not bad in MacLean's view, especially because the team was down a few bodies.
"Based on what we did last weekend with a bit of a short bench, I'm pretty excited about where we're at as a hockey team right now," MacLean said.
The key against the Rockets, the coach said, was work ethic. In each game, the Cougars put together a solid 60 minutes.
Three Cariboo players -- forwards Chase Dubois (illness), Riley Pettitt (personal) and Thomas Webster (personal) -- missed both games last weekend, while defenceman Scott Cullen sat out the first contest because of a suspension. To make matters more difficult, forward Cole Morris suffered a broken arm early in the second game.
"It was just a funny hit," MacLean said. "The way I saw it, he was going behind Okanagan's net, with a guy tracking behind him, and a guy in front of him hit him. His arm kind of got caught in between the two guys and there was nowhere for it to go."
Morris, a 17-year-old from Prince George, has five goals and 11 points in 18 games. He's expected to be out of action for four to six weeks.
"He's a good leader on our team so for sure we're going to miss him," MacLean said. "Especially on the penalty kill, he does a really good job of that."
With Morris out, the Cougars will lean on bantam Tier 1 call-up Myles Mattila for the second consecutive weekend. Mattila, 14, normally skates for the Farr Fabricating Cougars.
"He's a pretty decent-sized kid and he learns fairly quickly the different things you've got to do at this level," MacLean said. "Saturday he played a little bit cautious and then Sunday he was a little more comfortable. This weekend it will be nice to get him in again. This is a team he's going to want to make next year and for him to get four games in early this year in his last bantam year is good for him."
When Mattila and the rest of the Cougars face off against the Giants, MacLean would like to see an effort similar to the one they gave against the Rockets.
"If we can continue to play 200 feet and be hard to play against, we're going to like where we're at," he said. "For us, it's a good part of the schedule to show where we need to go as a hockey team."
Steven Jandric, a 16-year-old Prince George product, leads the Cougars in scoring with 10 goals and 24 points in 18 games. Among the league leaders, he's ninth.
Colton Kerfoot (13 goals and 29 points in 18 games) is the most dangerous Giant. The 17-year-old from West Vancouver is second in league scoring to Tyson Jost of the Rockets. Jost, drafted by the Western Hockey League's Everett Silvertips last spring, has 14 goals and 31 points in 14 outings.
