The Burlington Cougars opened their Ontario Junior Hockey League season against the Georgetown Raiders at Central Arena Friday night.
Cougars Forward Colin Ronalds expressed optimism about the season opener and the team’s prospects this season during a pregame interview with Cougars broadcaster Phil Edmunds.
“Oh yeah, we’re excited. I think the whole team’s ready to get going. It’s been a long time coming, it seems, since their last game. So I think everybody’s pretty fired up,” Ronalds said.
“It’s good to have experience. Obviously, last year coming in, we didn’t have much. I think coming back, so I think that’ll help us to keep calm in the room when things get under pressure, and it’ll help us throughout the year.”
Before the game, Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward did the ceremonial pregame puck drop at centre ice.
In front of 440 fans in attendance, the visitors poured on the offence in the first period, jumping to a 6-0 lead through the first twenty minutes, and outshot the Cougars 21-8.
Despite the overwhelming first 20-plus minutes, the Cougars regrouped and put on an encouraging show in front of the Central Arena crowd for the remainder of the contest.
Max Morin put the Cougars on the board at 6:07 from Ethan Fredericks and Joseph Febrillet. With under six minutes remaining in the middle frame on the power play, an excellent setup pass from Zaiden Hraiche to Reid Forster closed the deficit heading into the third period.
Ronalds scored from Hraiche and Morin less than three minutes into the period, and Sean Short’s power-play marker from George Matsos and Joshua Pinchak with 52 seconds remaining rounded out the scoring for the Cougars in a 7-4 loss.
The special teams showed positive signs in the home opener. Burlington was 2/8 on the power play, and the penalty kill units excelled by successfully shutting down four consecutive Georgetown Raiders power plays.
Burlington faces their first busy stretch of the season this week as they play four games in six days, starting with the Niagara Falls Canucks at Central Arena on Tuesday, followed by their first road game in Leamington on Thursday.
The Cougars return to Central Arena against the Collingwood Blues on Friday, and then face the King Rebellion Sunday on the road to cap off the busy week of games.
