Win & a tie headed into final weekend

The Mount Royal Cougars men’s hockey team faced the Augustana Vikings in a home and home series over the weekend, taking the first game at home on Friday 4-1 before playing to a 4-4 draw on Saturday, despite outshooting the Vikings 46-22.

Friday was a night for special teams’ play, with the Cougars scoring three of their four goals with the man advantage. The fourth came by way of an empty net goal. Their only goal allowed was a shorthanded marker in the first period.

The Vikings scored that shorthanded marker at 8:20 into the opening period, as Brent Ottman capitalized on a Cougar turnover to make it 1-0. That’s all the offense the Vikings could generate in the Cougars’ home building.

Vikings’ goaltender David Ritz played a strong opening two periods, and kept the Cougars off the board until a Viking interference penalty at 17:15 of the second period gave the Cougars a powerplay opportunity. The home team took advantage as Jeremy Roberts converted a nice passing play involving Barry Horman and Jessie Tresierra to knot the game at 1-1.

The Vikings took a double minor penalty for high-sticking at 4:50 of the third period, and the Cougars would make them pay twice. Tresierra buried one in the back of the net after a nice individual effort to make it 2-1, and Eric Galbraith made it 3-1 off a Jeremy Roberts feed with ten seconds remaining in the Viking penalty. Veteran Joe Vetere added an empty netter to close it out.

Justin Cote played a strong game for the Cougars, stopping 18 of 19 shots for the win.
Saturday’s game was one the Cougars would have liked to have back. One night after going three of seven on the powerplay, the Cougars went just one-of-ten on Saturday as they struggled to beat Vikings’ goaltender Paul Kolida.

The Vikings opened the scoring on the powerplay at 11:34 of the first period, but the Cougars would respond two minutes later as Jordon Harrison took a nice feed from Coleton Thielmann to draw even at one.

Just two minutes later though, the Vikings would again take advantage on the powerplay, beating Cote to reclaim the lead. Cote didn’t have his strongest effort on Saturday, ultimately allowing four goals on 22 shots.

The Cougars continued to pepper the Viking net-minder as they registered 30 shots through the first two periods, but couldn’t find a chink in the armour of Kolida.
The Vikings finally added an even-strength goal as Richard Dupre scored unassisted to go up 3-1.

The Cougars had a lot of catching up to do going into the third, but just eight seconds into the final frame the Vikings were able to jump out on the break despite being shorthanded, and beat Cote to make it 4-1. That marked the second shorthanded goal allowed by the Cougars in as many games.

Credit the resiliency of the visiting Cougars, who finally found an answer to Kolida’s stellar play, beating him on the powerplay at 1:40 of the third as Jason MacDonald converted off a Jeremy Roberts feed to make it 4-2. Bradley Bakken also assisted on the play, one of three assists for Bakken on the night.

The comeback started to gain momentum as Eric Galbraith scored four minutes later, taking a nice pass from Bakken to pull within one. Then, at the mid-way point of the final frame, the Cougars’ leading scorer Barry Horman tied the game at four apiece, converting a pass from Harrison and shocking the hometown Augustana fans.

Overtime would solve nothing, and the Cougars escaped with a tie.

Harrison and MacDonald each had two point nights.

The Cougars have a busy week with three games on the schedule. The Cougars will play the Portage College Voyageurs on Tuesday Feb. 8th, a game that was postponed in January due to electrical failure in the Portage arena. Then the Cougars will face SAIT in a home and home beginning this Friday at Flames Community Arenas.

Puck drops at 7:30 in what should be an interesting series as the Cougars trail the Trojans by six points, playing one less game thus far than their top ranked cross-town rivals. Three wins this week, including a sweep at SAIT would secure first spot for the Cougars headed into the ACAC playoffs.