The Cougars travelled to Brantford Thursday night to take on the 99ers at the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. With Burlington taking the first two meetings of the season quite handedly, the 99ers came out with some retribution in mind.
Burlington took an early 2-1 lead into the locker room after the first period with goals from Jack Richard and Keegan Decaluwe. Brantford responded with three unanswered markers in the second, with 16 year-old Easton Wainwright notting a pair of goals for the 99ers.
Josh Belgrave scored late in the third for the Cougars to bring Burlington within one. Burlington pulled goaltender Zach Dietz, looking for the equalizer with the extra attacker, but were unable to capitalize. Ultimately, they fell 4-3 to the Brantford 99ers.
The two teams met again Friday night in Burlington at Central Arena, where we saw an offensive outburst from the Cougars. Brantford scored first, but Burlington responded for seven straight unanswered goals, ending the night with a 7-1 victory.
Jack Richard and Matthew Zebedee led the charge with 9 points combined. Zebedee completed the hat-trick in the third period for his first three goal performance in the OJHL for the 20 year-old vet.
“It felt really good” said Zebedee when asked about his hat trick. “Have to thank my linemates for making some nice passes. It’s a good feeling and hopefully there’s more to come”.
Goaltender Kyle Metson improved his record to 8-0-1 in the win and made 26 saves.
After splitting the home and home with Brantford, Burlington shifted focus to the visiting Stouffville Spirit Sunday night. Stouffville came in riding a five game losing streak, while the Cougars were looking to build some momentum off of their seven goal thriller on Friday.
Burlington struck twice in the opening period. Defenseman Sterling Wolters tallied a power play goal with forward Isaac Faccio adding to the lead minutes later.
Jack Richard and Joseph Nikac each tickled the twine in the second period for the Cougars. Peter Kioussis got Stouffville on the board in the middle frame.
Ryan Russell added a short handed goal for the Spirit but that’s as close as they would get, falling 4-2 to the Cougars.
“We lost the first game this weekend but to get back on the horse and get these two games was super important to us,” said defenseman Wolters.
Burlington will look to keep the momentum going when they meet the Collingwood Blues on Friday night at Central. They’ll follow that up on the road Sunday in Milton at 6:30 p.m.
- Written by Phil Edmunds
