The Southwest Cougars will open the 2018-2019 Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League season this weekend.

Cougars head coach Dennis McNish says his players are more than ready to go.

"Everybody is real excited here. The process to get to this point is a long one. Guys are through WHL camps, MJHL camps and our camp and our preseason. I think it feels like we've been playing meaningless hockey for a while and everybody is real excited to get started. We're happy to be starting with a road trip."

"There's a lot to like about our team," added the Southwest bench boss. "We're a veteran team. We've got depth all through our forwards and defense and we have Randy Cooke our returning goaltender so that's definitely going to be a strong point. Then on the flip side of that I think we have a lot of skill as well. We're looking forward to starting the season."

The Cougars are heading for Northwestern Ontario this weekend.

Southwest will play a pair of road games against the Kenora Thistles on Saturday and Sunday.

"Historically it's really tough to come out of Kenora with four points," McNish said. "Obviously that's the goal. Anything less than two, we'd be real disappointed. We have no idea what they're like. We haven't seen them at all in the preseason. We're just going to worry about our own game and put our best foot forward."