Hard Fought Point

The Westshore Wolves dropped a major game last night, giving up 6 unanswered goals to the Panthers and falling 6-3. After losing to the Cougars several times in a row they had no desire to do it again. It showed.

The 1st period was a battle from both clubs. The Cougars outshot the Wolves by more than a 2 to 1 margin but it was a war. Hard hits and lots of chances. It wasn’t until a really unfortunate bounce off of Ty Brant in the 2nd before the scoreless game was broken. Jack Westhaver tossed the puck towards the front of the net and the only player there was Ty Brant. If this was Association Football it would be scored as an Own Goal.

The 2nd period was mostly a Westshore game, with the lone Cougars stand-out being Fraser Wyatt in net. Playing his second stellar game at home in a row. The Cougars turned on the jets in the 3rd period early, culminating in a Jackson Estey tying goal. After coming in 2 on 1 and going roof. The 3rd was marred for the Cougars with a number of penalties, leaving them short-handed for half the period. Including the strangest penalty call I have ever seen. Ty Brant got tied up with Andy Westhaver in the Cougars zone. Westhaver was put to the ice. The whistle went after Westhaver didn’t get up. It took a long while for him to be helped off the ice. What made it odd was the fact that the officials did not make any call.  Or at least not until the Westshore bench started yellow for a Slew-Foot penalty. After a conference the referee went to the Cougars bench to tell Cougars coach Brody Coulter that a Slew-Foot penalty will be called from the Linesmen. Except none of the officials knew who committed the offence…So Brody Coulter got to pick the player to serve the penalty that was issued to an “Unknown Player”.

Ultimately, these penalty calls killed the Cougars momentum. After losing the opening face-off in Overtime the Cougars didn’t get much in the way of possession for the rest of OT. Elijah Goyer finally buried the puck to end the Cougars 2021 on a losing note.

 

The Cougars next game is on the road. Kerry Park on January 1st.