The Cariboo Cougars are going to get another chance to step past a Giant obstacle.
The Cougars and Vancouver Northwest Giants - longtime rivals in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League - will start a best-of-three playoff semifinal series on Friday at Kin 1. The meeting will be their first in playoffs since the 2012 final, which the Giants won in a sweep, 4-1 and 2-1.
The previous two finals, the Giants also beat the Cougars in the minimum number of games.
In 2011, they skated to 4-3 and 6-2 victories, and in 2010, they defeated the Cats 6-2 and 5-4.
All three of those championship showdowns were played on the Giants' home ice.
Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague is well aware of the history because he was behind the bench for all of those setbacks.
This time, he's looking forward to having the Giants inside the boards at Kin 1.
"Hopefully we can do something at home," he said.
"We've always played them
in playoffs in Vancouver, at Burnaby Winter Club, and have sometimes come up with the short end of the stick. But the series has always been interesting. We've just got to play well defensively and we've got to be disciplined. We've been preaching that all year, and our goaltending has to be really good.
"With the Giants, you have to be able to capitalize on the opportunities they give you, because they don't give you too many."
Friday's opener is scheduled
for 5 p.m. Game 2 will start at
the same time on Saturday. And, if a third game is necessary, the puck will drop at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The second-seeded Cougars got to the semis by sweeping the seventh-ranked South Island Royals last weekend. The third-seeded Giants had a tougher time advancing, as they won a deciding game 3-2 in overtime on Monday night against the sixth-seeded Vancouver Northeast Chiefs.
Mitch Williams, a former Prince George resident who now lives in North Vancouver, scored the series-clinching goal. The Chiefs had pulled off a 3-2 upset in Game 1 and the Giants took Game 2 by a 7-2 count.
In the other semifinal, the top-ranked Valley West Hawks will host the fourth-seeded Okanagan Rockets.
In the regular season, the Cougars went 2-1-1 against the Giants. On Nov. 14 in Prince George, the teams battled to a 2-2 tie, and, the next day,
the Cats won 4-3. Then, on
Feb. 13-14 in North Vancouver, the Giants squashed the Cougars 8-4 but the Cariboo club prevailed 4-3 in the rematch.
If the remainder of the BCHMML post-season unfolds a certain way, history could repeat itself. Back in 2008, the fourth-seeded Cougars dumped the top-seeded Giants 6-4 and 4-2 in the semifinals and went on to down the third-ranked Rockets 5-1 and 4-3 in the final for their first - and, to date, only - playoff banner.
At that point, the Cougars needed a series victory against the Calgary Buffaloes to advance to the Telus Cup national championship tournament, but lost two games to one.
This year's Cariboo team has been built with one eye toward the 2017 Telus Cup, which the club will host.
