To finish in second place and receive a first-round bye in playoffs, the Cariboo Cougars needed to take care of their own business and get a little help from the North Island Silvertips.
From the Cats' perspective, everything worked out perfectly.
In their final games of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League regular season, the Cougars swept the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs in a weekend series. Playing in Abbotsford on Saturday, the Cats won 4-3. Then, Sunday in Langley, the Cougars skated to a 4-2 win.
Prior to that contest, which started at 8 a.m., the Cats knew a victory would clinch them second place. That was a certainty after the Silvertips upset the Valley West Hawks 3-2 Saturday in Abbotsford.
"It was kind of funny because we were stuck with an early morning game so we had our guys up at 5, but you could tell they were motivated right from the start to win," said Cougars assistant coach James Morrison. "There was none of the morning blues, nothing like that. They were ready to win and they came out very hard right from the beginning. It was very good and they were rewarded with a win, which was nice."
By jumping past the Hawks into second place, the Cougars earned a free pass to the playoff semifinals, a best-of-three series scheduled for March 11-13 in Prince George. If the Cats had finished third, they would have hosted a first-round series this coming weekend.
On Monday, see The Citizen and pgcitizen.ca for more.
