The Southwest Cougars will open the 2017-2018 Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League season with three road games this weekend.

The Cougars face the Winnipeg Thrashers on Friday, then play the Winnipeg Bruins on Saturday and wrap up the weekend against the Eastman Selects on Sunday in Beausejour.

"Everybody is really excited and I know the coaches are," said Southwest head coach Dennis McNish who is back for his fourth season behind the Cougars bench. "A couple of the kids have specifically went out of their way and told me how excited they are to start the year without being asked. With all the junior camps the kids go through, and then our whole preseason process, I think everybody is ready to get going here."

'I like our veteran leadership," answered McNish when asked to comment on this years team. "Most coaches like depth at centre and I think we've definitley got that. I like the buzz we've got around our room right now."

McNish knows having to start the season on the road with three games in three days is going to be taxing on his team.

"If we're going to have any success, we're going to need to make sure that we're playing everybody and everybody's contributing or else we're going to run out of gas real quick here. It's so early in the year where most teams aren't going to be as organized as they would like to be so we're just going to try and limit our mistakes and be the hardest working team every shift and every period."

The Cougars will play one more road game next Friday against the Yellowhead Chiefs in Shoal Lake before playing their home opener the following night in Souris against the Central Plains Capitals.