What Happened?

Story by Tom Arlidge.

The Cougars went into Friday night’s game at the Panorama Leisure centre to face the Peninsula Panthers coming off a win against the Westshore Wolves where they had one of the best first periods of the season. What a difference a day makes.

The Cougars looked off in the first. Passes weren’t crisp and on the tape which led to a lot of turn overs. At 8:11 Matthew Seale scored on Cougars starter Jonah Chambers on a wrap around. Assists to Owen Cox and Denver Maloney. One of the few bright spots for the Cougars came at 13:36 when Ethan Roworth came off the bench and was hit with a pass from Dylan Franklin which sent him in on a breakaway and he made no mistake beating Panther netminder Ashton Lukan to tie the game. Late in the period Franklin was heading to the Panther net and Seale grabbed his shoulder and hauled him down on a scoring opportunity but no call was made. This would result in a bench minor from someone on the bench expressing their opinion of the non call. The period ended with the score tied with shots 14-6 in favour of the Panthers due to 3 Cougar penalties. It could have been much worse if not for the play of Chambers.

Things just got worse as the game progressed. The passing got worse. Later in the second period a Cougar forward tried an outlet pass from beside the Cougar net with 2 Panthers in the way. Payton Braun knocked down the puck, passed it to Logan Spears on the boards who put it to Riley Braun in the corner who fed it back to Payton in the slot and the game was 2-1. That was at 13:49. The teams traded a few power plays but the period ended 2-1.

In the third it was more of the same. At 7:08 Tristan Rosenblood scored on a back door feed from David Moody and Seale for his first of the season. The game ended 4-1 Panthers with an empty net goal to Seale.

Players of the game were Lukan for the Panthers and Roworth for the Cougars. Final shots on goal were 35 Panthers and 22 Cougars.

The Cougars play the Westshore Wolves next Wed at the Q Centre.