Cougars roar to comeback win over Hornets

By Jake Courtepatte

Chock up three points for the Schomberg Cougars, and a leap up the Provincial Junior Hockey League ladder.
The Junior C club had a hectic, yet productive weekend of Carruthers division action, in picking up three of a possible four points in a pair of overtime games.
On a tear since the beginning of October, Schomberg played host to the Caledon Golden Hawks at the Trisan Centre on Thursday night for the first time this season, battling in a back-and-forth affair to an eventual 4-4 tie.
With neither side able to get on the board in the first period, Caledon's Adam Magliozzi eventually broke the goose egg just over five minutes into the second in beating Cougars keeper Nico Fekete.
The goal broke open the floodgates at both ends of the ice for the remainder of the middle frame, with Schomberg's Rees Cameron and Vito Sica each getting on the board next. Caledon rounded out the period with three unanswered goals, taking a 4-2 lead into the final twenty minutes of regulation.
Yet the Cougars managed a third period comeback to tie it up before the final buzzer, a sequence which would become the trend heading into the weekend. Connor Childerhose made it a one-goal effort with just under 14 minutes to go, before Cameron knotted it up with a late tally.
Neither side managed to find the back of the net in the extra frame, leaving both teams skating off with a point apiece.
At the New Tecumseh Rec Centre on Friday night to face the Alliston Hornets, the Cougars were in for a case of déjà vu, finding themselves in a 4-1 hole mid-way through the second period.
It was then that Cameron Kokelj, Brandon Cohen, and Sica mounted the comeback for the visiting team, capped off with Sica's tying goal with just under 12 minutes left on the clock.
Childerhose picked up the game winner just a few minutes into the overtime period, his sixth of the season to take the team lead.
Nicolas Porretta moved his record between the pipes to above the .500 mark with his second win in a row, making a total of 31 stops on the night.
The win marks just the latest success story in the Cougars' season, which began as a roller coaster of wins and losses through September. Yet since the calendar turned over, the Cougars have gone 3-0-1 to move to third in the Carruthers division standings with a record of 5-4-1, just one point back of both the Penetang Kings and Stayner Siskins.
A prime opportunity to make up that ground presents itself this week in the upcoming schedule: Schomberg hosts the basement-dwelling Midland Flyers in a 7:30 p.m. start on Thursday night, before visiting the Huntsville Otters on Friday, tied with Midland at the bottom.
For stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.jrccougars.pointstreaksites.com.