Promising turnaround foiled by three straight losses for Schomberg Cougars

November 26, 2014 · 0 Comments

The Cougars’ Taylor Ewart stopped 23 of 24 shots in the 2nd period of last Sunday’s game against the Caledon Golden Hawks, despite a 7-4 loss.
Photo by Jake Courtepatte
By Jake Courtepatte
After an eight-game losing streak in late October was snapped by back-to-back wins the for Schomberg Cougars, the Junior C club seems to have once again taken a turn for the worse.
With three games on the docket over four days last week, the team was given an opportunity to swiftly climb the ladder in the tight middle-ground of the GMOHL standings.
They kicked off the week against the top-ranked Alliston Hornets, a team riding a nine-game winning streak of their own.
After Tristan Joseph of the Cougars exchanged first-period goals with the Hornets, the score was blown out by Alliston.
Five unanswered goals handed the Cougars a 6-2 loss by the final whistle.

Stayner spoils Cougars

It didn’t get much easier on Saturday, when they headed north to Stayner to face the third-ranked Siskins.
Goaltender Taylor Ewart was a solid force in net, stopping 38 of 41 Siskin shots he faced. Unfortunately, his Stayner counterpart Trevor Bloch was just as unbelievable, stopping all 35 shots he faced to shutout the Cougars.
The Siskins added an empty-netter, taking the game by a score of 4-0.

Caledon overpowers

Schomberg saved perhaps their most exciting hockey for their matchup Sunday in Caledon to take on the Golden Hawks, who had recently been climbing the standings out of the league’s basement.
Nathan Sinclair put the Cougars on the board first with his first goal in a Cougar uniform, matched quickly by Caledon’s Christian Mariconda.
The Hawks went up on a lucky bounce, as Ben Ardis found the puck right on his stick at the top of the crease for a 2-1 score.
Schomberg got an opportunity to tie the game nearing the end of the first period on the power play.
Cougar’s leading scorer Brandon Yorke made a nice feed to Kiefer McIntosh in the slot, who made no mistake going to the five-hole on the screened Caledon goaltender.
Their second lead of the game came at the eight minute mark of the second, as John Gage scored a pretty unassisted goal. He corralled the puck on an attempted Caledon dump-out, before walking into the slot and unloading a wrist shot over the goaltender’s blocker – all shorthanded.
The back-and-forth action continued in the period as the Cougars got into penalty trouble with back-to-back stick minor penalties.
On the ensuing 5-on-3, Mariconda notched his second of the game on a rebound that he flipped over a sprawling Sam Procopio.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, the third period was the home team’s for the taking. After a goaltending gaffe from Procopio in which a flipped puck on a dump-in rolled down his back into the net, the momentum was clearly shifted the way of the Hawks.
Despite a nice backhand goal by J.P. Crescenzi midway through the frame, the Hawks picked up four goals in total in the third for the 7-4 win.
This week’s schedule gives the Schomberg team an opportunity to turn their luck around once again, as they take on the two teams tied for last place in the GMOHL.
They host the Midland Flyers on Thursday, before heading to Erin to take on the Shamrocks Saturday.
For stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.schombergcougars.com.