A potent offence and a stellar goaltending performance gave the Cariboo Cougars a 6-0 win over the visiting Okanagan Rockets Saturday night.

The Rockets started out the first period strong dominating puck control and firing early and often on Cougar netminder David Readman who earned his 10th win and second shutout of the season.  The Cats grabbed momentum midway through the opening period when Ryan Forbes scored shorthanded, beating Rockets goaltender Harrison Whitlock.  Forbes then got his second of the game on the power play as the Cougars took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

The Cougars doubled their lead in the second with goals from Tyler Povelofskie and Tanner Fjellstrom at which point Whitlock was pulled in favour of Brenden Mills.

Chase Astorino and Jake LeBrun scored three minutes apart in the third as the Cats cruised to the 6-0 victory.

The win was somewhat overshadowed by several simultaneous fights that occured after the final buzzer, including members of both teams' coaching staff.   Astorino and Okanagan defenceman Mackenzie Ferner have been assessed a one-game suspension for fighting.  Cougar Head Coach Trevor Sprague and Rockets Coach James Eccles were both given gross misconducts and mandatory minimum three game suspensions for their roles in the affair.

The Cougars win improves their record to 20-8-5, seven points up on both the Chiefs and Canadians for second place in the BCMML.

The Rockets loss is their first in 2012, dropping their record to 15-10-6, good for fifth.  The two teams face each other in their final meeting of the regular season Sunday morning at 10 at Kin 1.

The Cariboo Cougars are back in their own barn hosting the fifth-place Okanagan Rockets this weekend.

The Cats are coming off a three-point weekend in Nanaimo while the Rockets are playing some of their best hockey of the season going 5-0-1 in their last six games.

Now into the home stretch of the BCMML regular season schedule, the Cougars are looking toward the playoffs.  The team knows the value of a pair of wins this weekend and what that could mean down the road.

"We need to get these two wins.  If we do, we have a bye week in a couple weeks and then we're to going to fall a couple points back then, so if we don't get the three of four points this weekend there's a chance we don't finish in the top two and get that bye in week one of playoffs," said defenceman Josh Connolly.  "They're a really quick team so we can't give them too much space, or they'll make us pay."

Head Coach Trevor Sprague has been happy with his team's effort the last couple weekends and is wanting more of the same against the Rockets to finetune into playoff form.  "It defines if we're going to be a second place team in the league this year or if we're going to be playing in the first round of playoffs is what it comes down to.  Our guys are ready to go," said Sprague.

The two teams last met in November in Kelowna when the Rockets took three of four points with a 4-4 tie followed by a 5-4 win.  It's a weekend that hasn't been forgotten by the Cougars.

"When we went down to the Okanagan and played them last time I was really  shocked with how much speed they were able to bring," said forward Hayden-James Berra. "I always know with the Okanagan boys, they're a quick breed, but they brought it to us really hard last time and we definitely took it for granted, we definitely underestimated them."

The Cats see the return of team goal-scoring leader Nathan Craft after missing three games.  Tyler Povelofskie also returns up front for the Cats after missing the last four games with an upper body injury.  Defenceman Colton Manning is expected to miss Saturday's contest with AP Stephen Penner once again filling in on the blueline.  Saturday's puckdrop at Kin 1 is set for 7:15pm with Sunday's rematch at 10:00am.

Former Cariboo Cougar Jari Erricson and the Everett Silvertips made their lone trip of the season to Prince George last weekend giving the one-time Cat a chance to catch-up with family, friends, and former teammates, all the while helping his team to a big four-point weekend.

Erricson is entering the home stretch of his second season in the WHL playing left-wing for the Tips after scoring 36 points in 36 games for the Cougars in 2009-10.  Through 48 games this season, he has three goals and seven assists.  He credits his experience with the Cougar organization for helping him crack the regular Silvertips lineup.

"The MML is a really good league to play in and the program that the Cariboo Cougars run, it's very professional and it makes the adjustment a lot easier," said Erricson from the team hotel Saturday morning coming off a big 5-2 win over the Prince George Cougars the night before in which Jari earned an assist and a plus 2 rating.

But not all nights have been as positive for the Tips this season.  Jari got a taste of the WHL playoffs last year scoring a goal and an assist in three games, but this year the Silvertips are in a battle for their playoff lives, currently sitting on the outside of the Western Conference post-season picture.  The season of struggles for the inexperienced team is something Erricson looks to take with him as he becomes more of a leader.  "It's just a learning experinece right now having a young team like this, and we have to go day by day and learn from our mistakes and try to get better."

With over 100 WHL games now under his belt, Erricson knows the value of constantly trying to improve his game both on and off the ice.  "I try to form as much as a leadership role as I can and be more of a role player on the ice, just trying to get better day by day."

The Silvertips earned the weekend sweep of the Cougars with a 4-3 win Saturday night, leapfrogging Prince George into ninth place in the West, four points back of Victoria for the final playoff berth.

A Brett Roulston hattrick powered the Cariboo Cougars to a 5-3 win over the North Island Silvertips Sunday in Nanaimo.

Coming off a 2-2 tie Saturday night, the two teams continued to trade goals through the first two periods of Sunday's rematch.  Roulston opened scoring in the first period, his second of the weekend as the Cats took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.  The Silvertips answered with a pair of goals in the middle frame before Roulston got his second of the game tying it at two.  The Tips re-took the lead with 4:20 remaining in the second before Eli Jarvis and Roulston with his third scored just nine seconds apart to go up 4-3 heading into the final period.

Cougar Captain Tanner Fjellstrom scored four and a half minutes into the final frame giving the Cats an insurance marker as Cariboo improves to 19-8-5 on the season with a five point lead over the Greater Vancouver Canadians for second in the BCMML.

Ryan Forbes had four helpers Sunday while Fjellstrom had a three point night with a goal and two assists.  The Cougars outshot the Silvertips 39-17 with Nathan Warren earning his 10th win of the season in goal.  The Cougars went 2/5 on the power play allowing one goal against on four Silvertip man advantages.

The Cougars return home for a weekend set against the Okanagan Rockets Saturday and Sunday.