After a slow start to the 2016-17 season, the Victoria Cougars are back in their usual spot, atop the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League standings entering the Christmas break.
A very un-Cougar like 3-4-0-2 October left the club in a bit of a spiral, but a nine-win November followed by five more victories in a shortened December have propelled the defending champions to a 23-8-0-3 record.
That log had the Cougars sitting first overall, three points up on the Campbell River Storm and four up on the Saanich Braves. The Storm do have three games in hand on Victoria, while Saanich has one after their 6-3 win over the Westshore Wolves on Friday.
The Braves have presented a tough challenge in the South Division, handing Victoria two regulation-time losses and an overtime setback.
鈥淪aanich has a really good club, there鈥檚 no doubt about that. They have a couple of players who, individually, are as good as there is in our league,鈥� said Cougars president Gary Boyer. 鈥淲e know they鈥檒l be tough to beat come playoffs.
鈥淭he difference, maybe, is they have a team with a couple of shining stars and we鈥檙e a team that鈥檚 very solid through four lines, so when the playoffs roll around it should be a solid test. If you put those players on the power play they will kill you, but if you can roll four lines, which are finishing checks on them every time, it will make for an interesting matchup.鈥�
New head coach Suneil Karod 鈥� who took over from Mark Van Helvoirt, who stepped down just prior to the start of the season 鈥� has the Cougars back on track.
The Cougars have also lost three games to Comox Valley, including an 8-2 drubbing before Victoria began its break last week. There were two defeats to Westshore and Nanaimo as well, but the stretch drive will tell.
鈥淵ou come back in the new year and the playoffs start in mid-February so it鈥檚 almost like a new training camp again. Truthfully, you can almost throw away the standings from the beginning of the year till Christmas, really, because most leagues, at the junior level, have most teams making playoffs. It becomes a moving target so you don鈥檛 know what you have until December,鈥� added Boyer.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been an interesting year, losing a lot of players after hosting the Cyclone [Taylor] Cup and with the change at the coaching level. We鈥檝e done some re-tinkering and it should be an interesting year with a lot of parity.
鈥淛ust the other day, Oceanside beat Campbell River. Just about everybody has had a piece of us this year so nobody is unbeatable. I don鈥檛 know if that means the traditionally weaker clubs are stronger or traditionally stronger clubs are weaker, or a little of both,鈥� he added.
Grayden Hohl leads the Cougars in points with 45 to sit third overall in the league, but the Cougars have 16 players in double digits in points, including 12 with 20 or more. Nick Guerra of Saanich leads the league with 54 points.
鈥淪uneil has done a good job in the guys are learning to win the close games and that鈥檚 what you have to do with a young team,鈥� said Boyer, who had Dom Kolbeins return from Campbell River and added goalie Liam McCloskey for a solid 1-2 punch with Anthony Ciurro. Boyer also acquired defenceman Chase O鈥橩eefe from Peninsula and forward Branden Tangney from Westshore.
One of the challenges the Cougars have in the stretch run is that the ice is coming out for two weeks at Archie Browning Sports Centre in January for the Canadian Junior Curling Championships.
鈥淪o we鈥檝e had to fit all our home games into a condensed window,鈥� said Boyer, whose team gets back to work Jan. 5 at home against Peninsula, with a big game the next night on the road to Saanich.
