North Dundas grounded by Cougars offense

The North Dundas Rockets are the latest team forced to recognize the Vankleek Hill Cougars' offensive talent has the potential to be the best in the league.

After handing the previously-undefeated Cumberland Bandits their first loss of the season by a convincing margin last weekend, the Cougars continued to light the lamp at an alarming rate on Saturday, November 26 against the Rockets.

The Cougars were eager for a win after being schooled the previous night by the Embrun Panthers, suffering a 7-4 loss. The only upside was a hat trick scored by rookie Nicolas Pharand, who marked all three goals within a 10-minute stretch in the second period.

On Saturday night, the Cougars' Christopher McPeak would strike first blood, putting his team on the scoreboard with 7:55 remaining in the opening frame, assisted by Marc-André Nantais.

North Dundas would even the score and eventually take a 2-1 lead before the end of the first period, sending the Cougars to the dressing room trailing on the scoreboard. Head coach Marc Berniqué says it's become an all-too-familiar situation this season.

"We had a very slow start, which seems to have become an unwanted trend for our team," he said.

Despite their sluggish start, the Cougars came out with an intensity that could not be denied in the second period. Karl Walcott notched two quick goals while Pharand scored his fourth goal in two games.

Vankleek Hill had a 3-2 lead before the three-minute mark of the middle frame, and continued the trend by taking advantage of a power play 10 minutes later: Sébastien Boucher tipped a blast from defenseman Maxime Bourgon past the North Dundas goaltender.

Unfortunately for the visiting Rockets, the last three minutes of the second period would see Bourgon, McPeak and Walcott each find the back of the net, allowing the Cougars to head to the dressing room with a 7-2 lead.

"Despite our slow start we were able to regroup and play our game," said Berniqué. "We were able to fore-check well, clog up the neutral zone and we capitalized on our chances."

Nantais, Boucher and Matthew Lalonde would increase the Cougars lead in the third period, handing North Dundas a lopsided 10-2 defeat. Although his team performed well, Berniqué was quick to point out there are still many areas that need improvement if it expects to climb the NCJHL standings.

"We still need to work on our discipline as well as our defensive zone coverage," he said. "Our players need to learn to motivate themselves and start playing as soon as the puck drops. We need to learn to play our style of hockey from the start and have other teams adapt to us, not the other way around."

The Cougars hope to continue their winning ways this coming Saturday when they welcome the Papineauville Vikings to the Cougars Den at 7:30 p.m.