Cougars Get First Win Of The New Decade!

The Cougars were the first team to win in 2020 in the VIJHL.

On Thursday night they hosted the Westshore Wolves. Early on you could see a little rust from the time off especially in the passing and decision making. The Cougars would draw first blood early in the first. The Wolves would clear the puck to the stick of Nathan Goliath who deflected the puck and Johnathon Esposito gloved it down. He then made a nifty pass to Evan Easton at the Wolves blueline. Easton took the puck to the high slot and with 3 Wolves on him managed to keep control of the puck and rip a wrist shot high glove side to make it a 1-0 Cougars lead. Then at 8:17 it would be Brandon McClintick who would find the back of the net. Goliath chipped the puck out of the Cougars zone and Easton hit McClintick with a pass and McClintick was hit hard at the blueline but still managed to keep his balance before ripping a wrist shot high blocker side from the slot. Spencer Golden took an interference penalty at 10:42 and the Wolves came real close. Newcomer Lach Hadley ripped one off the crossbar and was dangerous all night.

Colton Witter started the 2nd period in the penalty box but on his first shift after he took a pass at the point from Captain Cam Lesergent and drifted a wrist shot top corner glove side. Wolves goalie Dalan Marleau was screened and didn’t see the puck before it was in the net.

A minute and 33 seconds later the Wolves would respond at 4:33 it would be the other McClintick brother Tory who would take a feed from Chase Klassen and drive down the left wing. From a tight angle he made a perfect shot over the left shoulder of Cougars goalie Brett Anderson. The second assist went to Noah Taron. The second finished with the Cougars leading 3-1 and shots were 18-14 in favour of the Wolves after 2.

In the third it was Daniel Larson who finished off a nice back door pass from Grady Nursey at 5:11 to draw the Wolves within 1. Then at 6:54 Nick Dumonceaux finished off a nice passing play from Marshall Brown and Bryce Irwin.

At 9:08Tyler Chyzowski hit Brandon McClintick from behind into the boards. A 2 minute penalty was called. On the powerplay Easton took the puck to the net and slid it 5 hole and then knocked the goalie down. The referee waved off the goal. During discussion at the Cougars bench Head Coach Brodie Coulter was not unhappy with the no goal call but was voicing his displeasure about the call on the hit from behind. I’m guessing he was a little too animated with his opinion as he was ejected from the game.

The game ended with the Cougars finishing off the scoring at 14:14 when Jude Wessel batted a Marshall Brown flip pass out of the air and into the net.

The game ended with the Wolves going 0-6 on the pp and the Cougars were 0-5.

Players of the game were Brandon McClintick for the Cougars and his brother Tory McClintick for the Wolves.

Next up for the Cougars in the Peninsula Panthers out at Panarama Rec. Centre tonight . Puck drop is 7:30

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