{"id":105263,"date":"2025-03-05T12:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T17:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editionap.ca\/?p=105263"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:52:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:52:45","slug":"cougars-finals-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/sports-loisirs\/cougars-finals-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars clawing their way to the finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Vankleek Hill Cougars are clawing their way towards the finals in the National Capital Junior Hockey League.<\/p>\n<p>The Cougars grounded the Metcalfe Jets in the quarter finals round and began their semi-finals series against the Westport Rideaus by clipping their opponents 4-3 in Sunday\u2019s road game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the road and we win, so it\u2019s a big win,\u201d said Cougars General Manager Franky Dopelhamer during a phone interview.<\/p>\n<p>The Cougars finished the regular NCJHL season with third place overall in the league. Dopelhamer expressed satisfaction with the result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re very happy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a good season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Westport took second place in the league standings, finishing one point ahead of Vankleek Hill. Dopelhamer anticipates the Cougars will have a good series of games in their semi-finals bout with the Rideaus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re similar to us, but I think we\u2019re faster than them,\u201d he said, adding that the way to win against Westport is to beat them to the puck and stay ahead of them on the ice. \u201cSpeed is key.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dopelhamer described this season\u2019s Cougars as an all-round team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re comfortable as a group,\u201d he said. \u201cAnybody can score and we\u2019ve got a blend of everything. We can match skill, we can match toughness. We\u2019re happy where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This Friday the Cougars have a road game against Westport. Saturday evening the Cougars host their first home game of the semi-finals against the Rideaus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vankleek Hill Cougars are clawing their way towards the finals in the National Capital Junior Hockey League. The Cougars grounded the Metcalfe Jets in the quarter finals round and began their semi-finals series against the Westport Rideaus by clipping their opponents 4-3 in Sunday\u2019s road game. \u201cOn the road and we win, so it\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":105264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-loisirs"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cougars clawing their way to the finals - Tribune-Express<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Cougars grounded the Metcalfe Jets in the quarter finals round and began their semi-finals series against the Westport Rideaus by clipping their opponents 4-3 in Sunday\u2019s road game.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/sports-loisirs\/cougars-finals-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cougars clawing their way to the finals - Tribune-Express\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cougars grounded the Metcalfe Jets in the quarter finals round and began their semi-finals series against the Westport Rideaus by clipping their opponents 4-3 in Sunday\u2019s road game.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tribune-express.ca\/en\/sports-loisirs\/cougars-finals-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tribune-Express\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-05T17:01:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T20:52:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.editionap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/VKH-COUGARS-file-photo-from-website-RESIZED-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joseph Coppolino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joseph Coppolino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/sports-loisirs\\\/cougars-finals-2025\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/sports-loisirs\\\/cougars-finals-2025\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joseph Coppolino\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/25dbd073b952565ed09ca19dbbfccc27\"},\"headline\":\"Cougars clawing their way to the finals\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-05T17:01:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-17T20:52:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/sports-loisirs\\\/cougars-finals-2025\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":250,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/sports-loisirs\\\/cougars-finals-2025\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cdn.editionap.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/VKH-COUGARS-file-photo-from-website-RESIZED-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports et loisirs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/sports-loisirs\\\/cougars-finals-2025\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tribune-express.ca\\\/en\\\/sports-loisirs\\\/cougars-finals-2025\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cougars clawing their way to the finals - 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