The Cariboo Cougars are finally getting what they deserve.
Normally, there's a negative connotation to that expression. But not in this case, because, after nearly a decade of dominance, the Cougars are going to get the chance to play in the Telus Cup national midget championship tournament. That terrific piece of news was made official by B.C. Hockey on Monday.
The Cougars, based in Prince George and formed by the top 15- to 17-year-olds in northern B.C., will host the Telus Cup in late April of 2017. They'll be part of a six-team tournament that will bring together champions from the Pacific, West, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic regions. Games will be played at CN Centre.
It's fitting that the Cariboo Cats will have the opportunity to skate for a national title. Over the course of the organization's 11-year history in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League, so many people have put so much of themselves into making the team consistently successful. From managers to coaches to players, the goal has always been to establish and maintain the Cougars as a professionally-run organization that wins hockey games and develops talent for higher levels of the sport.
And win the Cougars have. From the 2006-07 season through to 2014-15, the Cats boast a record of 230-103-27. That's a winning percentage of .639, which is spectacular by any standards. The impressive numbers have translated into two first-place finishes, four second-place showings, two fourth-place finishes and one sixth-place result.
The most recent first-place finish was this past season when the Cats posted a 29-8-3 record. The Cougars - who had already won gold at the international Mac's tournament earlier in the year - then advanced through the first two rounds of the playoffs before they were upset in the championship final by the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs. Winning the playoff final is necessary to continue down the road to the Telus Cup. The B.C. champion faces off against the Alberta champ in a best-of-three series and the winner represents the Pacific region at nationals.
So the 2014-15 Cougars were within shouting distance of getting to the tournament, which was held in Riviere-du-Loup, Que., and was won by the Toronto Young Nationals. And the Cougars have been close on numerous other occasions, including the years 2009-10 through 2011-12 when they lost out to the Vancouver Northwest Giants in the B.C. final. The Cats got even closer to a Telus Cup berth in 2007-08 when, as the No. 4 seed in playoffs, they knocked off the top-ranked Giants in the semifinals (6-4 and 4-2) and then dumped the third-seeded Okanagan Rockets in the championship series (5-1 and 4-3). The Cougars then played for the Pacific title and a spot in nationals but fell to the Calgary Buffaloes in a best-of-three affair that went the distance. Calgary won the opener 6-3 and the Cats took the second game 5-4 in triple overtime. The deciding game went in favour of the Buffaloes, 3-1.
That 2007-08 Cougars team was coached by Grant Williams and featured a 16-year-old Brett Connolly (now with the Boston Bruins), a 15-year-old Brett Bulmer (now a pro in the Minnesota Wild organization) and players like RJay Berra and Nic DeSousa, who went on to have solid junior A careers. Bulmer, a silky-smooth sniper even at 15, scored the OT winner in the epic second game off a feed from Berra.
The Cougars also flirted with a Telus Cup appearance in a different way. In 2010, they were in the running to host the 2012 tournament but Hockey Canada awarded the event to Leduc, Alta. Local folks involved in that effort to bring the Telus Cup here included Andy Beesley, Shawn Rice and Jane Newman. All three also worked to make the current bid a successful one so this is a nice payoff for them.
It's also nice for Cougars coach and general manager Trevor Sprague, who has been the driving force behind the club for the majority of its existence. His passion for the Cougars program may be unmatched by any coach/GM at the midget level in Canada and that has shown through in the level of success the team has achieved over the years.
Sprague treats the running of the Cougars like a second full-time job and is constantly striving to make a strong operation even stronger. When it comes to the Cats, he never really has an off-season. He uses the warmer months of the year for scouting and for spreading the word around the northern region about the team and what it can offer to aspiring players. Then, of course, there are the yearly identification camps that always have him back inside the rink in August, a time when most people are happy to be soaking up sunshine at the lake. This year's camp is Aug. 6-9. Furthermore, Sprague has done a great job of finding sponsorship dollars for the Cougars by forming partnerships with businesses from around the north. All the rinkboard advertising in Kin 1 - the Cougars' home arena - didn't get there by accident.
Perhaps most importantly, Sprague has given the Cariboo Cougars organization its identity - a northern, blue-collar team where players are expected to work just as hard in practices as in games. On the ice, it's all business, all the time. Excellence in all aspects of the game is the end goal. Away from the rink, whether it be in school or in the community, players are held to the same high standards. That's the Cariboo Cougar way.
Quite simply, Sprague has earned the right to be a head coach in the Telus Cup. He was an assistant to good friend Brent Arsenault when the tournament (known then as the Air Canada Cup) was last held here in 2001 and will probably have a thrilling sense of dj vu when the spring of 2017 arrives.
And make no mistake - Sprague has already begun to prepare. He's already envisioning the kind of team he'll need to have in 2015-16, one that's on the young end of the scale but will be reaching its peak by the time the 2017 provincial playoffs begin.
The 2017 Telus Cup is coming to Prince George. The Cariboo Cougars will be ready.
Really, they've been ready for years now.
