The Cariboo Cougars are on fire, and mercilessly held that flame to the feet of the Okanagan Rockets.
They beat the Rockets 7-2 Sunday and 7-4 Saturday in Kelowna and have have now won seven straight B.C. Hockey Major Midget League games.
Levon Johnson and Eli Jarvis each scored two goals and Tanner Fjellstrom, Chase Witala and Brett Harris also found the net to lead the Cougars' cause Sunday. Mitchell Cook and Harlan Orr replied for the Rockets.
Josh Connolly and Tyson Witala each fired a pair Saturday, with singles from Harris, Harjas Grewal, and Hayden Berra. Orr scored two for Okanagan, while Jordan Burns and Matt Lambert also scored.
"The players did what we asked them to and stepped up their neutral zone forechecking and played the body and that led to a lot of great chances," said Cougars assistant coach James Morrison, whose team has won its last four road games.
"In a league where you only play 40 games, every game is important. They're showing they can win on the road and that's only going to help when we play the top teams in the league. There are a ton of great players in northern B.C. and at the start of the season some of them were still adjusting to playing at this level from Tier 3 or Tier 4, but they're getting the hang of it now."
One of the players Morrison was referring to is Nathan Craft, a 16-year-old forward from Kitimat. Now playing on a line with Luke Gordon and Chase Witala, the MML rookie has two goals and four assists in 10 games.
Jared Rathjen notched both victories in the Cariboo nets. With David Readman out with an ankle injury, Nathan Warren was called up from the Farr Fabricating bantam Tier 1 Cougars to fill in as backup goalie. Rathjen made 27 saves Sunday and had 24 stops on Saturday as the Cougars outshot the Rockets 47-28.
The weekend wins moved the Cougars (10-4) into second place in the 11-team league, two points back of the Greater Vancouver Canadians (11-3).
The Cougars host the last-place (0-11-1) Thompson Blazers this weekend at Kin 1.
