The Cariboo Cougars have a chance to make up some ground this week in the BC Major Midget League standings as they travel to the provincial capital to take on the South Island Royals.
The Cougars have won their last two road games and are hoping to carry on that success to the Save on Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria for games on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:45 a.m. Heading into the weekend double header, the Cougars are 5-6-1 on the year, while the Royals are 6-6-2.
Improving the team's play in their own zone has been one of the main focuses at practice this week after the Cougars managed only one point out of two home games against Kootenay last weekend.
"Our focus is our own end right now," Cougars head coach Bryan MacLean said. "We continue to have breakdowns in our own end and end up letting the puck go in and for us, we just can't have that."
The early season scoring woes for the Cougars seem to have been solved, with 21 goals in their last five games, but the team has a 2-2-1 record over that stretch.
"It's a characteristic of a young hockey team, you start focusing on one thing, it becomes better and then you lose focus on another area," MacLean said.
As the Cougars work to tighten up defensively they will have to contend with BCMML leading scorer Haydn Hopkins who has nine goals and 16 assists in 14 games for the Royals.
The Cougars welcome Colton Thomas back in the lineup this weekend after he missed the games against Kootenay due to his participation in the Western Canada U16 Challenge Cup in Calgary.
"It's been a while since we've played with 12 forwards," MacLean said. "It will be nice to have him back in the lineup for sure."
Last season the Cougars swept the regular season series against the Royals 4-0 and beat them twice more in the quarter-finals.
The Cougars return to home ice for games on Nov. 16 and 17 against the North Island Silvertips.
