Welcome to part two of 'By the Numbers', an in depth look at the Cougars regular season. Over the next few days, CaribooCougars.ca will release three parts of our 'By The Numbers' series. We started with the situational, now moving to the opponents, before finishing with a breakdown of individuals on the team.

When I started the season, I broke down the 40 major midget league games into 5 categories that I felt would make a difference on the outcome of the game. Obviously home and away games are important, but I wanted to dissect those road games into 'Vancouver', 'Island', and 'Interior'. There are many factors that go into a road game...the long changes twice, the foreign dressing room, and most of all, the travel. The Cougars are used to long bus rides, it comes with the territory of living up north, but add long trips to the Kootenay's or a ferry ride to the island and it can have a big factor on the team's preparation.

The Cougars finished with a record of 28-11-1, good for 2nd place in the league for the 2nd consecutive year. It's the most wins the team has compiled since 2006-2007, where they also won 28 games, but lost only 7. The real strength of that number though, comes from the games played away from Prince George. The Cougars road record is a very impressive 15-4-1, compared to 13-7-0 at home, but when the team played interior teams (Kootenay, Okanagan & Thompson), the Cougars were 6-0. Likewise on the island against the Thunderbirds and Silvertips, the Cougars went undefeated. It goes back to what we discussed in the first part of this series, that the Cougars score first and lead early....and road or away, that's going to help you win games.

The only destination that the Cougars "struggled" in, was the lower mainland, against the Hawks, Bruins, Giants, Chiefs and Canadians. I use the term "struggled" loosely, as the team still sported a winning record, 5-4-1. The team swept the Valley West Hawks in week 3, and then the Chiefs in the final weekend. It will be a difficult end of the season though, as the Cougars don't have a winning record against any of the remaining teams in the playoffs. The Cougars are 1-3 against the Giants following the split up in Prince George in December, the same with the Canadians who the Cougars split with in October (the win from that series of the Sunday kick started the 12-game streak the Cougars went on), and finally the away sweep trade with the Hawks.

It'll be an interested run to the finals. The Cougars have just as much confidence on the road, as they do at home, and when you can win away from home in the playoffs, you've got a great shot at winning it all. Our final piece we breakdown some of the stats from the regular season on an individual basis.