They're on a six-game winning streak and haven't been beaten in 11.
So yes, they're ready for playoffs.
The Cariboo Cougars finished the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League regular season with a pair of weekend road wins against the Greater Vancouver Canadians. On Saturday, the Cats edged the Canadians 1-0, thanks to an end-to-end game-winning rush by defenceman Josh Connolly early in the third period. The next day, the Cougars exploded offensively in a 7-1 victory.
The Cougars (26-8-6) finished in second place in the 11-team league and, along with the first-place Vancouver Northwest Giants (29-5-6), earned a first-round bye in playoffs. The scorching-hot Cats will be ready for whoever they meet in the semifinals March 16-18 in Prince George.
"It's 11 games in a row where we've at least had a point -- it obviously helps out in a big way on confidence in what we can do in the playoffs and how we need to play," said Cougars head coach Trevor Sprague.
While his team has been piling up positive results for several weeks now, Sprague said there are still certain aspects of the game the players have to be mindful of as they head into the post-season.
"We just have to be really assertive in our end -- on our backcheck and we've got to finish our checks on the pointmen," he said. "We can't be on the wrong side of the guy if the puck is still on the D-side for us. We've had a lot of cookie nights where we've had high scorers and if you end up cheating against good teams they end up burying pucks on you because of it."
On their current 11-game unbeaten streak, the 15- to 17-year-old Cats have outscored their opponents 69-15. Over the course of 40 games, they fired 196 goals, second-most in the league behind the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs. The Chiefs (200 goals for) placed third in the standings with a record of 23-13-4.
In the playoff quarterfinals -- best-of-three series which will run Friday through Sunday -- the Chiefs will host the sixth-place Valley West Hawks (20-17-3) and the fourth-place Okanagan Rockets (20-12-8) will welcome the fifth-place Canadians (18-14-8).
In the semis, the Giants will meet the lowest-remaining seed and the Cats will get the other quarterfinal survivor.
Sprague wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that's the Chiefs.
"We've played very well against them all year, and it seems like the second round we always play the Chiefs," he said. "They're a team that has a lot of scoring power so I think the Chiefs -- probably 90 per cent [odds] -- should come out of [the quarterfinals]."
The MML playoffs will send one team to a regional championship against the Alberta winner, and that series will serve as a qualifier for the Telus Cup nationals, April 23-29 in Leduc, Alta.
Prince George was in the running to hold this year's Telus Cup but lost out to Leduc. That fact has helped to motivate Sprague and the Cougars, who would have been the host team.
"It was pretty upsetting for us as an organization and the MML not to have the Telus Cup in Prince George and in B.C.," Sprague said. "It's something that has put a little spark in the way we're playing the game right now -- to make sure we go to Leduc."
