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Cougars win in overtime |
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Written by Citizen Staff
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Saturday, 15 November 2008 |
Cats defeat Chilliwack
If ever there was a time and place for the Cougars to mount -- and,
surprisingly -- complete an impressive comeback, that was it.
First,
it was on the road, where so little success has been found all season.
Second, it was in Chilliwack, against a Bruins team that is in the same
neck of the woods at the tail end of the Western Conference standings.
And, third, it was one night after a hard-to-swallow loss to the much-improved Portland Winter Hawks.
The
Cougars were behind 3-0 in the third period of Saturday’s game in
Chilliwack, gamely battling back to force overtime and win 5-4 on
Parker Stanfield’s marker less than a minute into the extra session.
“I’m
proud of how they stayed with it and kept taking the play to them,”
said Cougars head coach Drew Schoneck, pleased with the dexterity his
club showed after Friday’s 4-1 defeat in Portland.
“We got the
engine going after a bit of a slow start. It really felt like it was a
matter of time for us to break out after their goaltender made some
big-time saves to keep the early score where it was.”
Jadon Potter
had two goals for the Bruins, one in the first period and another to
build a 3-0 Chilliwack lead in the third, with Randy McNaught adding to
the total. The Cougars were dead and buried with less than 13 minutes
remaining in regulation.
Or so it seemed. Jeff Regier, in his first
night back from a concussion, scored his first goal as a Cougar, and
super rookie Brett Connolly followed that power-play goal with another
3:25 later. Greg Fraser tied the score with 7:24 to play, only to see
Andy Smith take advantage of Dana Tyrell’s minor penalty, giving the
Bruins a 4-3 lead.
Tyrell atoned, leaving the box and scoring his
17th of the season to end the regulation scoring, his goal coming with
5:04 to go in the third.
Stanfield gave the Cougars two points, the
overtime goal assisted by Brian Matte -- who scored the OT winner in
September when the Cougars won their first away game of the season.
Away from CN Centre, the Cats (10-13-0-1) are 3-11-0-0 this season.
“Our
big line played well, but Stanfield and Matte were good for us,” said
Schoneck. “A guy who had a good game was Colby Kulhanek, who was very
good against his former team. Cody Hobbs had one of his better games in
awhile. Our back end kept things simple and Jeff Regier had a good game
coming back from the injury and had an important goal to get things
going.”
Rebounding from the Friday loss showed character, the coach said.
“In
Portland, we weren’t particularly strong there -- we had chances there
in the first period and didn’t bury them, then took some bad
penalties,” said Schoneck. “There have been some things that haven’t
helped us on the road, and one of them is taking too many penalties.
That means your best players are playing too much on the penalty kill
and don’t have enough when it’s five-on-five. We have to have better
starts, when you look at our road games we haven’t come out of periods
with a lead in many games. We have to come out with more conviction.”
Netminder
Kevin Armstrong didn’t have his best game of the season, but did earn
the win on 22 saves. The Cats fired 25 shots at Bruins goaltender Marc
Friesen, including the only shot of overtime.
KITTY LITTER: The
Cougars are in Kamloops on Wednesday, then welcome the high-flying
Kelowna Rockets on the weekend. C Corey Tyrell (knee) is set to return,
and LW Marek Viedensky could be back on the weekend, so a move is
possible to reduce the number of bodies in the dressing room. The
Cougars have 25 players on the roster, with D Colin Scherger (broken
hand) still a few weeks away... P.G. native Ryan Howse suffered a
bruised leg on Saturday and didn’t play Sunday as the Bruins won on the
road in Kamloops, 5-2... To absolutely no one’s surprise, Connolly has
been named to Team Pacific for the upcoming World Under-17 Challenge in
Port Alberni.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 17 November 2008 )
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