Cougars Keep Roaring
By: Michael H. Willoughby
After a tough loss in Collingwood the previous weekend, the Burlington Cougars bounced back with a win over the Milton Menace at Central Arena on Friday.
Prior to the game, Cougars broadcaster Phil Edmunds spoke to forward Ty Daniels about the team finding confidence after facing the league’s top team and what needs to be done to get the win against Milton on home ice.
“We go into their barn, we score six goals, so that’s a positive right there. Obviously, you want to win a game that you score six goals in, but end of the day, we know they’re a good team, we’re a good team, and we’re gonna have plenty more battles with them for the rest of the year,” Daniels said.
“We just got to stick to our game. I think we’re a really good team. If we play our game, score goals and play hard defence, we should have a good chance of winning this game.”
With 5:21 to go in the first period, Nolan Keeler got the Cougars on the board with his fifth of the season, set up by Max Morin and Zaiden Hriache. Shorthanded early in the second period, the Cougars doubled their lead on an unassisted goal from Daniels, his 13th of the season, at the 7:28 mark.
Less than a minute later, the Menace got on the board just seconds after their power play ended. But the Cougars restored their two-goal lead with 6:13 left in the middle frame as Calder Anderson’s 7th of the season from Lucas Ferguson and Ben Santerre. On the power play with 26 seconds left, Sean Short connected for his ninth of the season, set up by Ethan Tatomir and Mickael Tissier, to put the home side up 4-1 heading into the third.
At 2:34 of the final frame, Anderson scored his second goal of the game, assisted by Morin and Hayden Bondy, to give the Cougars a commanding 5-1 lead. Milton scored midway through the period, but the Cougars weathered a penalty-filled frame to beat the Menace 5-2. Goaltender Carter Vicente made 44 saves, including 18 in the third period, to earn his eighth win of the season.
On Oct. 24, the Cougars travelled to the Mold-Masters Sportsplex for an early-evening matchup against the Georgetown Raiders. Before the game, they had the league’s second-highest-scoring offence, with 85 goals (4.7 per game)—and this matchup showed just how potent they can be.
Just 34 seconds into the contest, Ferguson scored his second goal of the season, assisted by Ben Lamb and Kael Cooper. With 6:44 left in the opening frame, Daniels scored his 14th of the season off passes from Morin and Keeler to put the Cougars up 2-0. Morin added a power-play goal, assisted by Keeler and Daniels, with 4:16 remaining. Andrew Bowness then scored off assists from Tatomir and Tissier with less than 90 seconds left, giving the Cougars a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Georgetown took the momentum of the game in the latter half of the second period with two goals in an under-two-minute span to cut the Burlington lead in half, but the visitors restored their three-goal lead with 4:30 left in the period, courtesy of Keeler from Daniels and Tatomir on the power play.
The Raiders scored on the power play at 2:36 of the third period, then added another goal with 6:37 remaining, cutting the Cougars’ lead to 5-4. But the visitors answered with two quick goals less than a minute apart: Anderson scored from Keeler and Daniels 24 seconds after the Raiders’ goal, and Tissier scored from Lamb and Bowness to seal the win as the Cougars head home with the victory. In his hometown, netminder Paddy Landry saved 44 shots for his fourth win of the season.
The Cougars are back on home ice for two games this week, hosting the Pickering Panthers on Tuesday and the Toronto Warriors on Friday.
