Midgets making steady progress

Puck pops loose and into the sight of the Cowichan Valley Midget Capitals’ Hayden Gross during action against Port Alberni Sunday at Fuller Lake Arena.

Don Bodger

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Former Cowichan Valley Capital Aaron Spotts is enjoying his tenure as coach of the Cowichan Valley Midget Capitals’ hockey squad.

“It’s a really good experience,’’ said Spotts, who previously assisted with the Kerry Park Islanders in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League before taking over as the midgets’ bench boss.

The team started off slowly this season, but seems to be improving with each outing.

“Almost all year, we’ve been in every game,’’ Spotts said. “Right now, we’re starting to learn with our young team.’’

Spotts has a mix of players at his disposal with slightly different objectives at the end of it.

“It’s a lot different than the levels I’ve played at,’’ he said. “There’s some kids want to move on to the next level and some are going to be done after the year.’’

In either case, the players are working hard to form a bond. There’s some third-year midget experience in captain Travis Lee and assistant captains Landen Bodger and Graham Winship as well as a bunch of talented first-year midgets.

The team had its second straight busy weekend of three games in three days.

It started with a 4-3 loss at Nanaimo on a goal with just nine seconds left in regulation Friday followed by a 4-2 win over Saanich Saturday and a comeback from a 3-0 deficit Sunday for a 3-3 tie with Port Alberni at Fuller Lake Arena.

The Caps are 3-4-1 overall in league play in the Tier 1 division.

Tournament play included a seventh-place finish among eight teams at Comox and a much-improved fourth-place showing Remembrance Day weekend in Victoria after a semifinal loss to Saanich.

“We had a pretty good showing there,’’ said Spotts.

He likes the way the forward combination of Winship, Nick Boyd and rookie Liam Craig has performed since being put together. They clicked for the bulk of the goals on the weekend.