Cougars hand league-leading Kings their first loss

November 19, 2013 · 0 Comments

Cougars forward JP Crescenzi celebrates a first period goal against the Penetang Kings on Thursday night. The Cougars defeated the league leaders and are now nipping at their heels.
Photo by Jeff Doner

By Jeff Doner

The resurgent Schomberg Cougars passed another test when they beat the division leading Penetang Kings 3 – 2 at the Trisan Centre last Thursday.
It was Penetang’s first regular season loss and the Cougars were more than happy to be the ones to serve it to them.
“That’s a big win,” said head coach Jim Egerton. “We’ve played with these guys in the past two outings – one in a shootout win for us that could have gone either way. Then we had them in Penetang and they came back and beat us in overtime and then tonight the bounces went our way.”
Coupled with their blowout win over Midland on Friday night, the Cougars now sit two points behind Penetang and three ahead of the Alliston Hornets in the Georgian Mid-Ontario Junior C division standings.

Cougars maul visiting Kings

Billed as a big match up, the Cougars came out hard against the Kings on Thursday night.
Looking to set the tone early on, Schomberg forward Declan Lampe banged in a rebound from close in to give his team a 1-0 lead just over a minute into play. It was Lampe’s fourth goal in three games.
Eight minutes later on the power play, Nicholas Chaykowsky made an acrobatic play at the blue line to keep the puck in Penetang territory. Eventually the puck found its way to JP Crescenzi, who put it past Penetang goalie Adam Redgate to give the Cougars a two goal lead.
But it wasn’t long before the Kings decided to bite back. At 11:24, Jordan Schwartz capitalized on the power play to make it 2-1. Penetang knotted things up 2-2 again on the power play just before the first period ended.
Taylor Ewart, who once again provided solid goaltending and timely saves in net, didn’t have much chance on a second goal that ricochet through traffic before finding the back of the net.
“It was a shot from the point and they got a tip on it,” Ewart said. “I was looking around the wrong side of the guy in front of me and it ended up in the left corner. If I was two inches over I probably would have had it.”
The Cougars came out in the second period still buzzing. They created chance after chance, but couldn’t cash in on any of them until Spenser Jones scored his first of the season to give the Cougars a 3-2 lead.
Flying down the wing, Jones beat Redgate glove side with a laser shot for the goal that surprised the defenceman himself.
“It felt amazing,” Jones said after the game. “I didn’t really expect it to happen. I had just come out of the box, got a nice pass from (Kiefer) McIntosh, all the way across the ice and I just kind of got it through the guys legs and put it over the goalies shoulder. It was a surprise to me.”
The goal would stand up as the game-winner, as Ewart and the Cougars kept the Kings in line for the remainder of the game.
Ewart made some huge saves in a third period where the Cougars were outshot 15-4.
Jones praised the play of his netminder after the 3-2 win.
“Everyone was just going tonight; you’ve got to give credit to the whole team, but especially our goalie, he just kept us in there,” he said. “We were all collapsing, he stood tall save after save. That was definitely the difference.”
Jones said the win also gives the Cougars an added jolt of confidence.
“It was kind of a wakeup call,” he said. “I don’t know if we really believed we were a really good team until now. That was a really big win for us. It’s the next step and we’ve got to keep it going and just stay on top.”
Added Egerton: “That’s like playoff hockey. Sometimes you’ve got to learn how to win games like that and that’s their first regulation loss, so I’m glad it was us.”

Cougars trounce Flyers

The next night the Cougars visited the Midland Flyers and did not disappoint, coming home with a 9-2 win.
According to the score sheet, the Cougars badly outshot their opponent 60-27.
Seven different Cougars scored in the game, including John Gage with two goals and two assists and Blake Culley two goals and an assist. Christian Muenz, McIntosh, Crescenzi, Brandon Falsarella and Bobby Quinn each added a goal. Crescenzi’s goal put him on a five game points streak.
Garett Taylor tallied the win in net for the Cougars with 25 saves. It was Taylor’s sixth win in a row and gives him a 7-1 record this season.
Egerton said the team seems to be clicking well and that the team is hoping to improve through the second half of the season.
“We’re pretty pleased with the start here. I think everybody is,” he said. “The boys come to practice and work hard every night and I guess we can start the second half now and hopefully things can get better.”
The Cougars will host the Erin Shamrocks for their next home game on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. at the Trisan Centre.
For more information, visit http://jrccougars.pointstreaksites.com.