Cougars win 9-0, 9-1 against Clippers

Saturday, Oct. 8 - Make it two in a row for the Mount Royal Cougar men’s hockey team after easily handling the Briercrest Clippers for the second night in a row. Leading the way for the Cougars was veteran Eric Galbraith, who had three goals and one assist in a 9-0 rout.

Coming off a 9-1 win just a night earlier, the Cougars’ opened the scoring just 49 seconds into the opening frame off an Erik Slemp snap shot that beat the Clipper goaltender in the bottom right hand corner to make it 1-0. Following the goal, however, the Cougars looked a little out of sorts, perhaps lacking some motivation in playing a Clippers team that had neither the skill nor the speed to compete with defending ACAC champs on Friday.

Despite outshooting the visiting Clippers 18-3 and dominating the time of possession, the Cougars were unable to add to their lead in the first. The Clippers did a nice job of killing off multiple powerplays, and were able to survive a 5-on-3 to keep the score at 1-0.

The Cougars hit the ice a much more organized bunch in the second period and once again dominated the play. Newcomer Logan Hareuf made it 2-0 3:49 into the second period, and the Cougars kept the play almost exclusively in the Clippers’ zone for the majority of the period.

Galbraith scored his first of the game on a breakaway at 14:59 of the frame, catching the Clippers on a change and taking a beautiful outlet pass from defenseman Brad Haber to make it 3-0.

The Cougars would add another with time winding down in the second, and would begin the third period with a 4-0 lead.

The flood gates opened completely in the third as the Cougars added five more goals, none prettier than Galbraith’s second of the game as he beat Clippers’ goaltender Jesse Chenard on the high glove side, converting on a great passing play from Brad Goss and Logan Hareuf.
 
Galbraith would score the final goal of the game to complete the hat trick with the win already in the books. The final shots were 45-12 in favour of the Cougars.

Seven different players found the back of the net for the Cougars, with Kevin Knopp, Jeff Barrett, Mike Brown, and Justin Daigle getting in the goal column in addition to Hareuf, Galbraith and Slemp.

Dylan Flette started today’s game for the Cougars, and while he wasn’t tested often he was solid when he had to be, recording a shutout in his first start of this short season. The addition of Flette gives the Cougars a lot of added depth in net, forming a formidable duo with returning starter Justin Cote.

Despite the 9-0 score it was really the Cougar defence that impressed on Saturday afternoon, looking like a cohesive unit despite having added some new faces in the offseason. New addition Brad Haber recorded three assists, and veteran blueliner Curtis Beech did the same.

Led by the gritty Darnell Glass, the Cougar defence allowed just 12 shots all game, and completely shut down the Clippers’ offensive efforts. Overall it was a solid team effort for the Cougars, but they will need some stiffer competition going forward to truly gauge how special this team could be.

One cause for concern on Saturday was the second period injury to forward Erik Slemp. Slemp limped off midway through the second period with what appeared to be a leg injury, and did not return. The former Camrose Kodiak standout will be a big part of the Cougar offense this season, and the team will need him healthy going forward.

The Cougars will face the MacEwan Griffins next week in a home-and-home affair. The Cougars will hit the road on Friday before returning to the Flames Community Arenas on Saturday night. Puck drops at 7:30 pm.

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Friday, Oct. 7 - The Mount Royal University Cougars men’s hockey team couldn’t have scripted their ACAC title defense any better.

The Cougars looked strong on opening night, thrashing the visiting Briercrest Clippers 9-1.
Goals by Jessie Tresierra (2), Jeff Barrett, Erik Slemp, Mike Brown, Eric Galbraith, Tyler Jewitt, Vinnie Muchalla and Jeremy Roberts helped pace the Cougars to their first win of the season.

“It’s a good win,” said Cougars head coach Jean Laforest. “We came out hard and did what we were supposed to do. Right from the back end, to the goalie to the D, to the guys up front, everyone did exactly what we set out to do in the game plan. Overall it was a great game.”

The Cougars opened the scoring just 1:52 seconds into the opening frame as Jessie Tresierra rifled a beautiful point shot from the right side through traffic past Clippers goalie Jesse Chenard.

The offense wouldn’t stop there, as just 2:42 later - the Cougars would add their second of the game, as Jeff Barrett deposited a rebound off Chenard’s blocker and into the back of the net to make it 2-0 Cougars.

Four minutes later, the Cougs’ would add one of their two goals with the man-advantage, as Erik Slemp took a nice feed from Jeremy Roberts and tucked it away short side on the backhand to make it 3-0.

With three goals in the game’s opening ten minutes, Clippers head coach Terry Dyck had seen enough, pulling Chernard in favour of backup Tyler Esau, who would fare no better.

Heading into the second period with the 3-0 lead, the Cougars would continue to impose their will on the Clippers, as Eric Galbraith would make one of the prettier passes on the night, waiting patiently for the Clippers defender to go down on the two-on-one before feeding a deft saucer pass over to Mike Brown, who tucked it in past a helpless Esau to stretch the lead to four.

From there, things continued to go downhill for the Clippers, as the Cougars would add there more goals in a 2:27 span midway through the period, as Galbraith, Jewitt and Muchalla would all tally their first goals of the season to make it 7-0 for the home squad – prompting yet another goaltender switch by Dyck, as Chernard would make his way back in net following the games seventh goal.

A quarter of the way through the third period, the Clippers would once again find themselves back on their laurels in a frantic scramble in front of their net.

In a desperation move to save a goal, a Clippers defender was called for closing his hand on the puck in the crease, prompting an automatic penalty shot for the Cougars.

Laforest would call on talented sniper Jeremy Roberts to deliver on the penalty shot, and deliver he did, undressing Chenard on a forehand-backhand deke to give the Cougars the 8-0 lead.

With the game all but out of hand, the Clippers would find a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel, as Kyle Stephansson would play the spoiler, ruining goalie Justin Cote’s perfect night, as the Clippers forward would add the teams only goal on a wrist shot from the middle of the slot, beating Cote to make it 8-1.

Defensemen Jessie Tresierra would add his second goal of the game at the 15:50 mark of the third period, to give the Cougars their ninth goal, and ultimately the win.

Goaltender Justin Cote earned the ‘W’ in net, stopping 15 of 16 shots, as the Cougars outshot the Clippers 46-16.

Mike Brown finished the night with a goal and two assists, while newcomer Tyler Jewitt was outstanding, chipping in a goal and three assists in the win.

With game two of the double-header schedule for tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, October 8th at 2:00 pm, the Cougars will look to make a few changes on both sides of the puck.

“We’ll change a couple of players and give some guys some experience,” said Laforest. “ It’s not that were displeased in the way anyone played, but we have a lot of talent and depth and I think it’s fair to give some guys the opportunity to play and see how they fit – especially this early in the season.”

If Friday night’s game is any indication of things to come, the Cougars look like they could be on their way to a second consecutive ACAC championship.