High Ambitions For Cougars As Hockey Returns To Burlington
By: Michael Willoughby
A new season of Burlington Cougars hockey is approaching, with high hopes and expectations for the 2026-2027 team.
Looking into the season ahead, Cougars Associate Head Coach and Assistant General Manager Kirby Tokarski says the team’s expectations for the season are high, with a deep and balanced roster and strong goaltending from Vincente, who was coming off a strong first season last year.
“We think we built ourselves a very deep and balanced roster, you know, excited with the d-core coming back. We’ve got very strong goaltending. Carter Vicente is probably going to be known as one of the top two, three goalies in the entire league. We’ve got some great depth in our forward lines, but ideally, we’re still trying to add pieces like everybody else is,” Tokarski said.
“We’re definitely going to try to improve our team. We’re happy with the nucleus we have right now as a baseline to start with. But we’re definitely looking to add a couple impactful players that I think will give us a good shot at being a top team this season.”
The Burlington Cougars opened their preseason schedule with a home-and-home exhibition series against the Oakville Blades.
In the preseason opener on August 21st, despite the Cougars outshooting the Blades for the majority of the contest (17-9 in the first period), they were unable to solve Oakville netminder Max Grovestine and dropped a 5-0 decision on home ice. Cougars’ netminder Carter Vicente made 34 saves.
The following night in Oakville, the Cougars took the lead with the goal by Reid Forster at 3:05 from Calder Anderson. Zaiden Hraiche doubled the Burlington lead from Colin Ronalds, with under ninety seconds left in the first period.
Oakville responded eight seconds after Hraiche’s goal, cutting Burlington’s lead in half as the second period began. The Blades then scored twice in the second to take a 3-2 lead and added an insurance goal early in the third to extend their advantage.
Hriache scored his second goal of the game with assists from Nick Kasich and Ronalds at 7:25, bringing the Cougars within one goal. However, they couldn’t achieve an equalizer late in the game and ultimately lost 5-3, despite firing 49 shots on goal. Netminder Paddy Landry stopped 31 of 35 Oakville shots on goal for the Cougars.
The consistent bright spot for the Cougars last weekend was their penalty kill, which was perfect at 4-for-4 over the two games.
The Cougars wrap-up preseason on August 25th and 28th at Central Arena against the Georgetown Raiders. Both games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
