Cougars keep up the fight, clawing their way up the standings

The National Capital Junior Hockey League basement is not a place where the Vankleek Hill Cougars feel that they deserve to be.

After a convincing win in Papineauville on Sunday, November 6, the team appears to be on its way to climbing up the standings.

The Cougars came out strong against the Vikings, taking a 4-1 lead after the first period and winning the game by a final score of 6-3.

The offense was led by outstanding performances by Pier-Olivier Poulin, who netted a hat trick, and Christopher McPeak, who scored one goal and added three assists. Defenceman Damien Charette scored his first ever Junior C goal and added two assists of his own, while Alex Cournoyer had a two-point game with a goal and an assist.

"Our guys played a strong, disciplined game," said head coach Marc Berniqué. "We kept up the intensity throughout the game and despite a brief meltdown in the third period, we managed to rebound and continue our strong play."

After the win in Papineauville, the Cougars made the decision to trade the rights of Patrick Boyer and Pay Garreau to the Vikings in exchange for goaltender Sébastien Faubert, who Berniqué feels will bring strong competition to the team's current number one goalie, Maxime Bédard.

The Cougars then traveled to Rockland to take on the Nationals on Saturday night, when both teams started slow and spent much of the opening period feeling each other out.

Rockland made the scoreboard around the midway point of the first period and would quickly take a two-goal lead a minute later. But with less than three minutes left in the period, Cougars forward Andrew Charlebois cut the lead to one when he was finally able to beat Rockland's goaltender. Maxime Bourgon drew the only assist on the goal.

The second period began with a flurry of scoring chances for both teams, and the offensive showcase would continue throughout the period with each team scoring three goals. The Cougars' second-period goals came from Cournoyer, Charles McKeown and Yannick Boudrias.

Trailing 5-4 at the start of the final frame, the Cougars came out flying and took the play to Rockland - scoring three goals before the five-minute mark, with goals coming from Alexis Girard, Andrew Charlebois and Maxime Bourgon.

Not to be outdone, the Nationals fought back and managed to even the score with only six seconds left, sending the game to overtime at 7-7.

The Cougars were unable to capitalize on a great scoring chance, leaving Rockland to counter-attack and score the winning goal only 24 seconds into overtime.

"We played a decent game tonight," said Berniqué. "At times we played extremely well and at times we were flat. We were able to battle back and gain the lead, but were unable to hold onto it."

The coach said his players fell into a defensive style, one they're not used to playing: "We have a very good team but I feel we have a tendency of always playing to the level of our opponents. Our players need to understand that if we play our style, which involves fast paced skating and fore-checking, we have the potential to dominate."

The Cougars return home this Saturday to face the yet-undefeated Cumberland Bandits at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars rank sixth in the league with a 2-7-2 record, compared to first-place Cumberland's 12-0-0.