Another Mac's day, another Mac's win for the Cariboo Cougars.
Only three other teams at the Mac's AAA Midget World Invitational Hockey Tournament are off to the same 3-0 start as the Cariboo Cougars. None of the others - the Belarus Under-17 Nationals, the Calgary Royals and Prince Albert Mintos - are in the same pool as the Cougars.
"That's a little bit of history. That's never happened for this hockey club," said head coach Trevor Sprague, which is saying something considering the success his major midget squad has had in recent years. The Cougars won the Mac's in 2014, came third in 2015 and now are off to a roaring round robin in '16.
Their first game on Monday was a 7-3 win over the Calgary Northstars. Game two was their closest contest, getting by the Notre Dame Hounds (who sit second in the pool) by a 3-2 score on Tuesday. After a day off, Thursday's win was a clobbering of the New York Jr. Islanders by an 8-3 score.
It sets up a possible pool sweep if they can prevail over Edmonton's South Side Athletic Club (with a 1-2 record so far) in today's game.
"That would be some more history if we do manage to get past Edmonton," said Sprague. "But they are going to be coming out to play spoiler, setting some specific goals for the team in this final game and coming out hard to meet them. That's what I would do."
He is setting some defensive goals for his own team in their final round robin tilt. The offensive objectives are being met quite handily, so far outscoring every opponent and by a combined rate of 18 for and eight against. Eight Cougars players have at least a point per game, led by Hunter Floris (five goals, one assist), Darian Long (three goals, two assists), and Devin Sutton (five assists).
"Offensively, every line is a threat, so it's tough for other teams to try to match lines," said Sprague. "Where I've seen problems is in our own end. When we get possession, the first pass has caused some turnover problems and that's turned into threats we shouldn't have to face. That first pass is too often a high-risk pass, trying to go cross-ice when you could hit the middle guy. We'll be talking about that before the game and using Edmonton as a chance to put that into practice. Once we get it out of the zone, we're doing pretty well in the offensive zone."
It has been dramatically exciting at that end of Cougars ice so far at the Mac's. In the first game, Floris and Ty Kolle (also had an assist) each scored a pair and Mason Richey had a goal and two assists to lead the way versus the Northstars.
In game two, the drama reached heart attack levels when the famed Notre Dame hockey program out of Saskatchewan got on the board first, but Jesse Pomeroy tied it up before first intermission. There was no scoring in the second, setting up a third period for the ages. Notre Dame again took the lead only a minute and a half into the final frame with their second power play goal of the game. Again, Prince George responded but not until only four minutes remained. Then, on their own power play and with only a minute remaining, the Cougars lit the lamp for the decisive time. Floris scored both the Cats' latter goals.
"That final goal felt like there was only four seconds left, it was just a huge goal," said Sprague. "There is a lot of history in that Notre Dame hockey program so that felt great. It's the first time I believe we've ever beaten them. Ever. For sure it's the first time since I've been connected to the team."
In the Thursday game it was another name that skated into the starlight.
"Darian (Long) was awesome today. He is so often one of our main threats to score, and today all the hard work paid off. He scored three and he got the hat trick on a penalty shot, so you can imagine how crazy that was," Sprague said. Long also added an assist to personally outscore the entire opposition Islanders.
The other Cougars goals were scored by Floris who also added an assist, two by Myles Mattila who also added an assist, a goal and assist by Trey Thomas, and one by Daine Dubois. Assists went to Joel Patsey (two), Brennan Malgunas, Devin Sutton, Jonas Harkins and Kolle.
Marcus Allen was in net for the Cougars. Today versus Edmonton, Zachary Wickson is scheduled to start.
