Prince George, BC — The Cariboo Cougars are on the road for the second straight week as they head to the West Kootenay on the longest trip of the season to face the Ice in Nelson.

The Cats are unbeaten in their last four and have pulled into a tie with the Okanagan Rockets for second place in the BCMML. The Ice on the other hand have suffered through another long season sitting in last place with a 3-23-2 record having lost seven straight dating back to early December.

In their first weekend series of the season in Prince George, the Cats came away with a pair of 9-2 wins. Since then the two teams have continued to grow further apart with the Cougars boasting one the league’s top offences and most stingy defences. Compare that to the Ice’s league low goals for (46) and worst goals against (191) and the expected result would be a pair of convincing Cougar wins.

But the Cougars don’t need to be reminded of what happened this time last season when the Ice came into Prince George and stole a 4-3 win despite being massively outshot.

The Cougars need to keep winning to keep pace with the Rockets who have a home-and-home series this weekend with the Thompson Blazers.

The Cats top production line of Liam Blackburn, Braiden Epp, and Logan Styler continues to hum along with Blackburn and Epp sitting second and third in league scoring. Blackburn is currently tied with former Cougar Seb Lloyd for the most assists in a single season with 37 and can set a new record of his own Saturday.

Gametime is set for 12:30pm today at the Nelson Community Complex with Sunday’s final regular season matchup between the two beginning at 9:15am. Both games can be viewed live at cariboocougars.ca.