Cougars Keep Cooking Up Wins
By: Michael Willoughby
In the spirit of Canadian Thanksgiving, the Burlington Cougars served their fans more victories this past week. But at the start of the OJHL Governor’s Showcase in Niagara Falls, the Cougars only dished out a small plate of a loss.
On Tuesday, the Cougars faced the Newmarket Hurricanes at the Gale Centre in their Showcase opener. The Hurricanes scored a goal each in the first and second periods to go ahead 2-0. Colin Ronalds’ sixth goal of the year, assisted by Ethan Tatomir and Ty Daniels, came 6:25 into the third period, pulling Burlington within a goal, but they couldn’t get the equalizer as they dropped a 2-1 decision. Netminder Paddy Landry made 28 saves in the loss.
The next day, Wednesday, the Cougars faced the Wellington Dukes on the final day of the Showcase. In the first period, Sean Short opened the scoring for the Cougars with a powerplay goal at the 2:07 mark, assisted by Ronalds and Daniels. 38 seconds after the Dukes tied the game, newly-signed Nolan Keeler made an impact for the Cougars with his first goal with the new squad, assisted by Zaiden Hraiche and Max Morin.
Wellington tied the game again early in the second period, only for the Cougars to score twice on power-play, goals by Daniels and Mickael Tissier, gave Burlington a 4-2 lead heading into the final frame. Hraiche, from Tissier and Lucas Muhn, added insurance for the Cougars midway through the period, en route to a 5-2 win.
Saturday, the Cougars faced the Mississauga Chargers at Port Credit Arena.
Burlington started strong in the first period, scoring two goals from Muhn and one from Keeler. In the second period, the Cougars kept up their offensive momentum, with Keeler netting his second goal, and additional goals from Ethan Fredericks and Kael Cooper, leading to a 6-0 advantage for the visitors after forty minutes.
Short’s eighth goal of the season, assisted by Reid Forster and Daniels on the powerplay, put the Cougars ahead 7-0, but the Chargers ended Landry’s shutout attempt at 8:45. Nevertheless, the Cougars secured the final word in the period when Morin scored his fifth goal of the season, assisted by Andrew Bowness and Keeler.
Although the shutout attempt concluded in the third period, Landry delivered his best performance of the year so far, with 36 saves leading to a 8-1 victory.
Ending a busy week, the Cougars headed to Caledon to play the Admirals on Sunday. Caledon took an early 3-0 lead by the midway point of the first period. However, the Cougars responded with a strong offensive push for the rest of the game, starting with Daniels’ seventh goal of the season late in the period, assisted by Tatomir and Ronalds.
Tissier got the Cougars back within one at the 2:07 mark, and with 34 seconds remaining in the middle frame Tissier strikes again tying the game for Cougars after forty minutes.
In the third period, the Cougars’ offence took a clinical form, with three straight short-handed goals (Bowness, Daniels, Fredericks) in the first 7:23 of the period, followed by two goals on the man-advantage (Tatomir and Daniels) at 9:47and with 9:08 left in the game.
Kael Cooper and Lucas Ferguson rounded out the onslaught as the Cougars finished a productive week of games with a 10-3 win over the Admirals. Carter Vicente overcame a tough start and made 32 saves for his sixth win of the season.
Next up for the Cougars return to Central Arena against the Oakville Blades on Friday followed by an afternoon road game in Collingwood against the Blues on Sunday.
