The last time they skated against the Thompson-Okanagan Rockets, the Bursey Buryn Cougars pulled off the upset of the year in the B.C. Hockey Female Midget AAA League.
The Cats will be seeking a couple of similar outcomes this weekend. If they succeed, they'll secure a spot in the playoff championship series.
The Cougars and Rockets will start a best-of-three semifinal tonight in Rutland. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday night and, if required, a third game would be played on Sunday morning. The series winner will meet the Fraser Valley Phantom or Kootenay Wildcats next weekend for a B.C. banner.
In the final game of the regular season, the last-place Cats beat the first-place Rockets 4-0. The Cougars then kept their momentum alive and downed the Vancouver Fusion in a best-of-three playoff quarterfinal last weekend. That 2-1 series victory earned them a date with the Rockets, who had a bye into the semis.
Cougars head coach Jason Garneau said his players are brimming with confidence as they prepare for the test the Rockets will offer.
"The girls are feeling really good about things right now," he said. "They know our last couple games against them were good games. They know that they're going to go there and give them a battle. They believe they can beat them, and that's half the battle. Maybe the Rockets are more aware of us now, but I don't know that they're giving us the amount of respect that our girls deserve so hopefully we can catch them feeling overconfident and show them just how far we've come in the last couple months."
In the regular season, the Rockets had a record of 22-4-1 and the Cougars went 4-21-3.
The playoff champion will advance to a Pacific regional series against the Alberta champion. The Pacific playoff will be a qualifier for nationals, April 17-23 in St. Albert, Alta.
