Two wins verus Briercrest Clippers

15 games into the men’s hockey season and the Mount Royal University Cougars have to like where they are sitting.

After a pair of wins this weekend versus the gritty Briercrest Clippers, the Cougars continued their march to the top of the ACAC standings, sitting in second spot, four points back of the SAIT Trojans for first place, with an upcoming game this Friday against the aforementioned Trojans.

Using a two goal lead in the first period on Friday, the Cougars were able to pull out the narrow 2-1 win, as Jason MacDonald and Jeremy Roberts led the early charge, each with a goal.

The Cougars would open the scoring first, as Roberts would notch his seventh goal of the season to give the Cougs’ the 1-0 lead.

With only three seconds remaining in the period, the Cougars would extend their lead to two, as MacDonald took a feed from Vinnie Muchalla to making it 2-0.

Despite being badly outshot 42-18, the Clippers were able to stay in the game, using a number of key saves from goalie Jesse Chenard to help steal the momentum.

The key saves would pay dividends, as the Clippers would make it interesting in the second, firing home a powerplay goal of their own late in the frame to make it 2-1 for the Cougars.

In the third period, the Cougars would only allow seven shots, with goaltender Dan Spence turning aside the lot, as the team earned their first victory since dropping a pair of games to the SAIT Trojans and Augustana Vikings.

On Saturday, the two teams met again at Flames Community Arena and with a win already under their belt, the Cougars were looking for the clean sweep from their Saskatchewan foes.

Special teams was the theme of the afternoon, as the Cougars penalty kill was the catalyst for victory, limiting the Clippers to just one goal on nine powerplay opportunities on the afternoon.

Goalie Brett Bothwell was rock solid in net, turning aside 22 of 23 shots faced, while teammates Jacob Verheyden, Grant Toulmin and Eric Galbraith took care of the scoring.

While the Cougars were thrilled with the efficiency of their penalty kill, the team can’t be happy with the 53 penalty minutes accrued during the affair, as they look to take on a SAIT Trojans team this weekend who sits third in powerplay conversion rate, scoring on 18 percent of their opportunities.

With the pair of wins the Cougars improve to 10-3-0-2 with only a single game remaining on Friday night.

With no shortage of bad blood between the two teams, Friday night’s contest is shaping up to one of the more interesting games on the men’s hockey schedule this season, as they seek to avenge a 3-1 loss from earlier this month.

Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at Flames Community Arenas. We hope to see you there!