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Cariboo Cougars have the right stuff

GM Sprague figures Northern B.C.'s U-18 triple-A squad good enough to push for a national crown
Cariboo Minor Midget Cougars vs Vancouver North West Hawks - IN PHOTOS_2
Cariboo U-16 triple-A Cougars forward Brady McIsaac tries to get the puck around Vancouver North West Hawks defender Joshua Hicks during a game last season at Kin 2. McIsaac has moved up to the U-18 Cougars and is expected to be one of the team's sparkplugs on offence.

When he looks at this year’s Cariboo Cougars roster general manager Trevor Sprague can’t help but smile.

Deep in every position, with an abundance of promising rookies and experienced veterans hungry to pick up where they left off when the rug was pulled out from under the hockey world just the playoffs last spring, Sprague, is eager to see how the season plays out for his team, if and when the Cougars get the green light to start their under-18 triple-A national championship drive.

“Every year we want to go to a national championship and we have a team again that can do that,” said Sprague. “This might be the best lineup we’ve ever had. The Telus Cup (two seasons ago when the Cougars were the tournament hosts) was a good team but this team has the potential to be better than that team.”

The major midget Cats now have 11 returning players, but could lose a handful of their top players who are committed to Western Hockey League teams. That includes forwards Fischer O’Brien (Prince George Cougars), Nico Myatovic (Seattle Thunderbirds), Hayden Smith (Saskatoon Blades), and defenceman Owen Palfreyman (Calgary Hitmen).

Forward Scott Cousins, who finished third in the B.C. U-16 Triple-A Hockey League scoring race with 28 goals and 57 points in 28 games playing for Cariboo, could also end up playing junior hockey this year, either with the Kelowna Rockets or in the BCHL with the Spruce Kings. The BCHL has already started its exhibition season, while WHL season gets underway on Dec. 4, with those teams convening their training camps next month.

Even without that group of major junior prospects, there’s still plenty of firepower.

Carter Yarish finished second in team scoring with 23 goals and 49 points in 40 games and he and Jaydon Merritt, coming off a 10-goal, 22-point season, will getting their share of icetime, as will midget veterans Kellan Brienan (9-11-20 in 2019-20) and Landon Ingham (10-3-13). Brady McIsaac (24-19-43), Decker Mujcin (15-24-39) and Linden Makow (23-24-37) all lit it up with the minor midget Cats and were key in their run to the regular season crown last year.

Also moving up from the U-16 team are forwards Chase Pacheco and Max Sanford, and defencemen Jace Norman, Matyas Mocilac, and Jordan Lagreca. Adam Bourgeois of Fort St. John joins the Cariboo Cats after piling up 19 points in 21 games for the Okanagan Rockets U-16 triple-A squad. Zachary Leslie and Pryce Peats are the returning defencemen.

“We’re looking to be really strong this year, it looks good on paper and so far our exhibition games went well for us, but there’s still lots of work to do,” said Cougars head coach Tyler Brough.

“We’re looking to be pretty stacked up front so we’re looking to throw four lines at teams to see if we can sustain that. I don’t think goal scoring will be an issue for us, we just have to take it from paper and put it on ice and make sure our systems are in place and that everyone is buying into what we’re selling as a coaching staff.”

Power forward Caden Brown of Fort St. John, a first-round bantam draft pick of the Prince George Cougars picked 17th overall in May, will be playing for the U-18 Cougars after two seasons at Delta Hockey Academy. Brown turned 15 in March and he blends in well with the older players, standing five-foot-10, and weighting 185-pounds. He’s the only 15-year-old on the team, after being granted special status by BC Hockey to play with the U-18 Cougars this season. Brown scored a goal and had two assists in a pair of exhibition game wins over the Thompson Blazers Oct. 2.

The Cougars were the second-stingiest team in the league last season, allowing just 90 goals in 40 games for a 2.25 average and the returning core should remember what worked well for them to keep the puck out of their net.

Three goalies are now in camp and the team is hoping to avoid a repeat the revolving-door netminder troubles they encountered last year. Cariboo used six goalies in a 40-game season and a had a handful of backups who had never played at the major midget level. Kenny Gerow took over in the second half of the season to replace Jordan Fairlie, who had to have knee surgery, and he’s in a battle for playing time with Dawson Smith and Tysen Smith, who had 14-1 record and 2.96 goals-against average in 16 games with the U-16s.

“I think we used 11 goalies last year with backups and emergency backups in practices,” said Brough. “We had our assistant coach (Berra) dress one practice in between the pipes and I’m pretty sure he’ll never do that again. Hopefully this year with having the three guys and the expanded roster, we’ll be pretty steady between the pipes.”

Last season the Cougars got off to a slow start and ran into injuries, but still managed to finish with a 27-10-2-1 fifth-place record, just nine points behind the first-place Okanagan Rockets.

The Cougars are allowed to carry up to 25 players on the roster for the exhibition season and they now have 24. That limit would drop to 20 players if and when league play begins. BC Hockey roster rules now in place forbid the use of affiliated players.

“We might have to make some tough decisions down the road here moving forward,” said Brough. “We could potentially lose five or six guys so that would leave us short and scrambling to add some players to our roster, which would be a tough situation in November or December even.”

Brough is in his fourth season as head coach, after two seasons as an assistant. RJay Berra has returned for his fourth season and Jordan Duncan takes over from Hayden Berra as the other assistant coach.

The Cougars played two exhibition games Oct. 2 in 100 Mile House, defeating the Thomson Blazers 5-2 and 4-2. They’ll hit the road again on Friday for Abbotsford and Round 1 of the Cohort Cup. They’ll face Greater Vancouver Saturday at 9 a.m., then play Fraser Valley at 7 p.m., finishing Sunday morning with a 9 a.m. game against Valley West.

LOOSE PUCKS: The Cariboo U-16s, under head coach Ryan Howse, played this past weekend in their minor midget Cohort Cup in Abbotsford. Cariboo started with a 3-2 win over the Greater Vancouver Canadians Saturday morning, then lost 5-4 in overtime to Fraser Valley Saturday night and dropped a 14-2 decision Sunday morning to the Valley West Giants.