February 22, 2018
By Pat Shields
BURLINGTON, ON
The road to the playoffs for the Burlington Cougars got a little bumpy on February 17th when they lost to the Mississauga Chargers. The Cougars were then 5 points behind the 8th place Orangeville Flyers for the final playoff spot with just four games left on the schedule.
It was a tough start for the Cougars who were playing at the Appleby Ice Centre, with the Chargers’ Matthew Brassard finding the back of the net to open the scoring at the 4:10 mark of the first period. Burlington would knot it up before the end of the frame though, with Mitchell Morrison scoring his 14th goal of the season.
Mississauga came out firing in the second period, out shooting the Cougars 13-7 thanks in part to some powerplay opportunities. The Chargers would take the lead at the midway point of the frame as Brandon Yeamans scored his 12th goal of the season.
The Cougars played hard – handily out shooting the Chargers by a 19-8 margin
The Cougars battled valiantly in the third period, handily outshooting the Chargers by a 19-8 margin and coming close to tying the game. The tying goal turned out to be elusive though, with Burlington failing to find the equalizer and all but shutting the book on their playoff hopes.
Cougars goaltender Justin Richer turned in another impressive performance in the loss, stopping 33 of 35 shots.
The hope for the team to keep its playoff chances alive when the St. Michaels Buzzers come to town for a Family Day matchup.
It didn’t got well enough. Despite a physical effort in Monday’s Family Day game, the Burlington Cougars came up short against the St. Michael’s Buzzers by a score of 3-0 and were eliminated from playoff contention in the process.
Burlington set the tone early playing a physical brand of hockey in the first period, but fell behind in the latter stages of the frame. Buzzers captain Cameron Searles broke the scoreless tie with his 16th goal of the season to give St. Michael’s the lead heading to the first intermission.
The Cougars were on the wrong side of a number of power plays, the undisciplined play didn’t help
The teams traded chances in the second period and while the Cougars found themselves on the wrong side of a number of power plays, were unscathed by their undisciplined play as the score remained 1-0 for the Buzzers heading to the third period.
With their season on the line the Cougars came out flat in the final frame, surrendering an insurance marker just 8 seconds in, this time with Buzzers Jonah Alexander finding the back of the net.
Burlington would continue its penalty trouble throughout the period, unable to establish much offensive momentum. Alexander would then ice the game with an empty netter with less than two minutes to play.
The Cougars now have just two games remaining in the 2017-18 season.
