It might feel like Groundhog Day for the Cariboo Cougars.
The major-midget Cats are making their third trip in as many seasons to the BCMML Final after losing to the Valley West Hawks and the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs the previous two years.
Hopefully, the third time will be the charm for Cariboo as they face off against the high-flying Greater Vancouver Canadians starting Friday at 3:15 pm from Kin 1.
Cougars Head Coach and GM Trevor Sprague expects his team to come out flying.
“For us, it’s about coming in with confidence and a little bit of swagger and not underestimating the team that were playing. The Canadians are a high-octane team and as long as we stick to our game plan and work our magic around the net to score a few more goals than the other team we’ll be great.”
The Cougars are returning 14 players from last year’s team who fell to Valley West in the 2016 BCMML Final.
GVC poses a major threat to the Cougars especially on the offensive side with weapons like Scott Atkinson, Owen Williams and Sasha Mutala just to a name a few.
Sprague was very complimentary about the highly-skilled bunch comparing them to one of the NHL’s brightest young stars Connor McDavid.
“When McDavid is on the ice he’s three or four steps ahead and he doesn’t cheat the game. These guys here can see the ice really well, they can make those really good passes and their passes on the power-play are very good.”
“They are burying their chances when they get them especially on the power play, and they got guys that can do damage, so for us it is about being disciplined playing our game and making the right choices. When we get chances to put teams away we need to do it quick.”
Marcus Allen is expected to start in game 1 for Cariboo.
Game 2 is slated for Saturday at 3:15 pm and if necessary, game 3 is on Sunday at 9:45 am.
If GVR beats Cariboo in the final then they would advance to Regionals against the Alberta representative in order to secure a Telus Cup spot.
If Cariboo wins the BCMML title this weekend, the Alberta rep gains an automatic berth into the Telus Cup which begins April 22 in Prince George.
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