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Cariboo Cats champions again

Given the chance to get their hands on yet another B.C. Hockey Major Midget League championship, the Cariboo Cougars had the ‘X’ factor working for them between the pipes and their fourth-line forwards stepped up to handle the scoring load.
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The provincial-champion Cariboo Cougars celebrate their 8-2 win over the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds Saturday in Abbotsford which clinched the best-of-three B.C. Hockey Major Midget League title. The Cougars will face the Calgary Buffaloes next weekend in Calgary for the right to play in the Telus Cup national championship.

Given the chance to get their hands on yet another B.C. Hockey Major Midget League championship, the Cariboo Cougars had the ‘X’ factor working for them between the pipes and their fourth-line forwards stepped up to handle the scoring load.

They overwhelmed the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds 8-2 Saturday in Abbotsford to win the best-of-three series 2-0 - avenging their two-game loss to Fraser Valley in last year’s final.

 “Those boys earned it,” said Cougars head coach Tyler Brough. “We got some bounces when we needed them, our execution was good and our power play scored when we got a few opportunities and we got great goaltending.

“It was nice to get that early lead, we kind of knew we had momentum coming in (to the first intermission) and it carried through to the second (period) and we just locked everything down and it worked out.”

Jaxon Danilec spiced the Cougar attack with two goals and an assist, Brendan Pigeon fired a pair of goals and Fischer O’Brien finished with a goal and two assists. Booker Daniel, Connor Fleming and Brett Fudger also scored for Cariboo in Saturday’s clincher.

“We got four goals from our so-called fourth liners,” said Brough, referring to centre O’Brien, left winger Fleming and right winger Danilec. “This team has prided itself all year on playing four lines and having everyone involved and in a game when we can clinch a championship we have our fourth line show up and score four of our eight goals.

“Connor was playing through an injury (to his ribs) and we weren’t sure if he was going to play but he buckled down and got taped up (by trainer Pam Solmonson) and played through it.”

The T-birds wilted in the face of the Cougars’ forechecking and that kept the puck in the Fraser Valley zone for much of the game, as reflected by the score.

“We had great efforts from our captain Grady Thomas right through to Brett Fudger and Lane Goodwin, kind of an unsung hero for winning face-offs and killing penalties,” said Brough. “Those guys just propelled this team to the championship and we can go up and down the lineup talking about guys because it was done by committee.”

Xavier Cannon, who was perfect in a 3-0 shutout win over Fraser Valley on Friday, also backstopped the win in Game 2. Brough and his assistant coaches, RJay Berra, Hayden-James Berra and goalie coach Lyman Miller and general manager Trevor Sprague had a difficult decision on their hands who to start in goal. Devin Chapman won the second and third games of the semifinal series with the Vancouver North East Chiefs, allowing just two goals in each of those games.

Cannon and Chapman have been trading starts ever since Chapman was returned to midget from the BCHL Salmon Arm Silverbacks a few months into the season.

“It’s a good problem to have and these guys are making it very hard on us, we’ve got two Grade-A starting goalies,” said Brough. “X shut them out Friday with a  good effort and we decided to go back to him and he got the job done.”

Fraser Valley won home-ice advantage for the final by virtue of its first-place finish, one point ahead of the Cougars. Brough admitted his team drew added motivation from what happened to them in last year’s final.

“As soon as we got the job done against the Chiefs that was my speech after the game just to let them know there was unfinished business for us,” said Brough. “They came into our building last year and swept just and we owed them.”

Thomas, a 17-year-old native of Williams Lake who had a goal and five assists in seven playoff games, is in his third season with the Cougars. He knew his team was strong when they were assembled in September but it took them few months to establish their identity.

“At the start of the year we didn’t know how good we were going to be, nobody does, but as the year went on we just kept working  and we outworked this (Fraser Valley) team,” said Thomas. “It felt great to come back to their barn and beat them two in a row.

“We had a harder go than them in the playoffs, we played some harder teams so I feel we were more prepared for this final. Last weekend (Chapman) kept us in that second game and we went to overtime (and won) and this weekend Cannon was unstoppble. It all started in the first game, we didn’t give the much at all and that created some momentum.”

The Cougars, who won the provincial crown in 2017, will go on to face the Alberta-champion Calgary Buffaloes in a best-of-three Pacific region championship series which starts Friday in Calgary. The winner will advance to the Telus Cup midget national championship in Thunder Bay, Ont., April 22-28.

The Cougars’ roster also includes: forwards Curtis Hammond, Alex Ochitwa, John Herrington, Brennan Bott and Jackson Hassman; and defencemen Max Arnold, Jacob Gendron, Matthew Magrath, Matthew Marotta, Brophy Dunne and Ethan Floris.