Cougars battling it out in ‘dogfight’

The Southwest Cougars don’t need to be reminded the race for playoff positioning in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League won’t be getting any easier coming down the stretch.

Following the Christmas break the Cougars are in sixth place at 17-9-3, but to believe there’s any breathing room to that position would be a mistake. Only four points separate the final four post-season spots, which are held by the Eastman Selects (38 points), Cougars (37), Pembina Valley Hawks (35), and Parkland Rangers (34).

Southwest head coach Tanner Lewis knows his club needs to up their urgency these last couple months of the season, or else they risk boxing themselves up for an early exit come March.

“It’s a dogfight where we are. Getting down to the end of the year, teams are going to start to tighten up, and goals are going to be harder to come by, so it’s going to be up to us to make those necessary adjustments,” Lewis said. “I think we’ve taken a lot of strides through the first half when you look at our record, and we’ve done a great job in putting ourselves in a position where we can fight for some home ice, maybe in the playoffs, but we need to keep going if we want to avoid the one and two seeds because you don’t really want to play the Wild or Bruins in the first round.

“Those two teams are the cream of the crop of our league.”

The dual Winnipeg threat has been atop the standings all season, with the Wild racking up a 24-3-3 record while the Bruins trail with five games in hand with a 22-2-1 showing thus far. There’s still lots of hockey left to be played, but it’s also shaping up to be the first time in five years the Brandon Wheat Kings — who sit 21-6-1 in fourth place — won’t finish the regular season as the No. 1 seed.

As for the Cougars, they will be thrown straight into the fire following some time off with a tremendous opportunity to make up some ground in the standings this weekend with a back-to-back set at home against the Eastman Selects, who are one point up on Southwest with a game in hand. Lewis doesn’t need to spell out to his squad what’s at stake in this series — they all know.

“Huge is an understatement, standings-implications-wise, and also gathering some confidence back after the Christmas break,” said Lewis. “They’ve got us twice in their home rink, and I feel like we’ve been one of the better teams on our home ice this year, so it’ll be important to defend our ice. I think a fresh start after Christmas break is going to do us good, and the boys should be motivated for this. Because it doesn’t take us going in there and trying to motivate them to play the way they should.

“We’ve got to get this done, and if we want to finish ahead of them, then we’ve got to make sure that we beat them twice on our home ice, like they did to us.”

Eastman dispatched Southwest 4-2 in the first meeting of the season on Oct. 16 and then doubled down a month later with another tight 3-2 effort.

This weekend’s tilts will be the last time these teams meet in the regular season, so the Cougars will be extra motivated to hit their opponents with everything they got — including a healthy lineup, which they hadn’t had in their two meetings against the Selects with top forwards Shane Elder and Jack Polasek out of the lineup.

Elder got hurt during the third game of the year after he sustained a concussion due to a heavy hit, which kept him out for 14 games, while Polasek missed 16 games after he broke his wrist during the team’s second game of the season against Pembina Valley.

Both have been back in the fold for about a month now and have been big contributors on the scoresheet with their five-on-five play and on the man advantage as well, as the duo has combined for 36 points in 28 games.

High-end veteran forwards such as Virden’s Eric Berger, Ninga’s Kole Beard, Brandon’s Cole Lobreau and Killarney’s Taylor Lockhart needed to step up in their absences and proved themselves well on the offensive production side, as the four are the club’s top scorers and have a collective 105 points on the scoresheet.

But they weren’t the only ones stepping up.

Lewis was also impressed with how his first-year players responded to playing big minutes right off the hop as opposed to being eased in over the course of the season.

“Our younger guys didn’t really get the kind of slow walk into the league, they kind of had to hit the ground running and I thought that our young guys did a good job of catching up to the speed of the league and kind of learning how to play earlier on,” he said. “Usually I feel like it takes ‘til around the start of December or Christmas time for the 15-year-olds to get adjusted, but I think every single one of them has come in and done a great job, especially with those two out (Elder and Polasek).”

Freshman forwards Coleton Koop and Gavin Anderson probably didn’t see themselves in a big role to start the year but jumped in and served big minutes and are a reason why their club has the record they do. In 27 games, Koop has recorded four goals and 16 points in 27 games, and Gavin Anderson has put three in the back of the net with 11 points in 29 contests.

Points don’t tell the entire story, though.

Southwest’s nice mix of experience and youth up front has boded well for them up until this point, not solely off talent, but their compete level as well.

“I think the way we play up front is, I wouldn’t say we’re a big team, but we’re a physical team,” Lewis said. “We like to put pucks in behind their D and make sure that their D turn and know that we’re coming and forcing them to create turnovers and I think the boys have really taken that in stride.

“We know that we’re probably not the most skilled group, being from a smaller region, you’re never going to be the most skilled group compared to the city teams, but I think the way we work and the way that we can manipulate their D is something that we’re really good at.”

One aspect the majority of the group has struggled with, on the other hand, is execution. Lewis said at times his club has had troubles burying chances in big moments, especially during odd-man rushes, when it appears guys aren’t even registering a shot on net because they’re trying to make that extra pass or deke.

He said it’s a common mistake in U18, when players are still learning that the simple play is usually the better one.

“Sometimes they try to do too much instead of taking an opportunity that’s given to them where they can get a puck to the net or they can make the simple play,” said Lewis. “They want to make the home-run play, which, I mean, they’re kids, so they’re going to make mistakes. It’s just making sure our coaching staff is talking to them and letting them know what their other options are and trying not to get them playing so tight either.

“You want to make sure they are given the freedom to make plays, and then you can tweak from there too, so it’s just learning from their mistakes and making sure we’re there to correct them.”

Tidying up those areas will also translate over to more success on special teams, where the Cougars power play runs eighth in the league at 23.4 per cent. Their man advantage has been a work in progress all season and will continue to be based on what seems to be working the best each game, but regardless, Lewis knows his players’ execution needs to be better if they want to edge out teams in those tight one-goal decisions.

Killing more opportunities a man down will also be a priority for Southwest, but its penalty kill still has the stronger numbers at 85.4 per cent and is sixth in the league. It’s had a lot of success this year due to keeping the majority of chances to the outside and having a layer of protection so guys have trouble getting easy looks in the middle.

That strong defensive mindset is also how Lewis wants his team playing at even strength as well, which has helped make life fairly easy for his two rookies in between the pipes.

Brandon’s Brady Shields and Wawanesa’s Nate Brown are both 17 but still in their first year of U18 AAA hockey but have proved they can manage just fine. Brown, who played for the Westman Ice Bandits’ U17 club last year, has a record of 9-5-2 with a 2.99 goals against average and a .906 save percentage for the Cougars, while Shields is 8-4-1 through 15 appearances and collected a 2.97 GAA and .899 save percentage. He played high school hockey in Minnesota for Osseo High last season.

Lewis has had no complaints with their play so far.

“We’ve been happy with them,” he said. “They’re both playing at a high level, and obviously, there’s goals and games that probably each of them wants back, but we have full confidence in both of them, no matter who we’re playing against. We’re comfortable putting any of them in the net, and I think the boys are confident in their ability back there too.”

The players and coaching staff also have full confidence in their leadership group, which is led by Reston’s Jamie Williamson — who knows exactly what it’s like to play in the big moments after representing Team Manitoba’s baseball squad at the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L., in August.

“Our leadership group has been through it before and has been on the playoff run before, so they know what’s needed at this time of year,” Lewis said. “Our coaching staff is going to lean on them to make sure that the younger players know what’s at stake and know what it takes to get ready at this time of year, and I have the utmost trust in them to make sure that we’re ready to push for this second half and try to get us as high up in the standings as we can.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com