Sunday was a good day for the Vankleek Hill Cougars as they won their semi-finals series against the Westport Rideaus.<\/p>\n
A 4-3 overtime win Saturday night for the Rideaus at the Vankleek Hill Arena meant the Cougars going on the road to Westport Sunday night for the seventh and deciding game in the series. The Cougars chewed up the Rideaus 4-1 to win the series and earn themselves a chance to face Gatineau this week for the start of the championship finals series in the National Capital Junior Hockey League.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an emotional night for many people,\u201d said Coach Ryan Allen, regarding the Saturday night home match between the two teams.<\/p>\n
The Cougars dedicated the game in memory of a Vankleek Hill youth who died in a motor vehicle accident in Cornwall on March 14. Every member of the Cougars team had a helmet sticker to honour the deceased and a moment of silence was held before the start of the game.<\/p>\n
Westport won the match Saturday night 4-3 in overtime. Both teams matched goals in first and second period and each failed to score a deciding point in third.<\/p>\n
Scoring points for Vankleek Hill were Zachary Bigras in first period, with help from Zachary Sullivan, and team Captain Andy Lightle-Blais in second period, assisted by Malcolm S\u00e9guin. Sullivan scored a tie-breaker goal midway during second period, with help from Bigras and Bruno Laframboise. Westport\u2019s Eric Judson tied up the score again five minutes before the end of period.<\/p>\n
Reagan Donnelly, with help from Ben Peladeau and Josh Price, scored the deciding goal of the game after about a minute-and-a-half of overtime play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played a good game,\u201d said Coach Allen, adding that the Westport players were perhaps anxious to ensure that they would have home ice advantage for the final game of the series the next day.<\/p>\n
Being on home ice did not prove any help for the Rideaus as the Cougars fired in goals every period Sunday night for a 4-1 victory over Westport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played the full 60 minutes,\u201d said Coach Allen, adding that the Cougars kept their game strategy \u201csimple and solid\u201d and avoided the mistakes that cost them on the scoreboard Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Malcolm S\u00e9guin opened up the scoring with a power-play goal for the Cougars five minutes into first period. Assisting him were Reid Cunning and Cougars assistant captain Sebastien Ouimet.<\/p>\n
Ouimet scored both of the Cougars\u2019 goals in second period, with help from Cunning, Callum Nystrom, and team captain Andy Lightle-Blais.<\/p>\n
Cody Horner scored the last goal of the night on a power play five minutes before the end of the game, with an assist from Ouimet.<\/p>\n
The Cougars are in Gatineau Wednesday night for the first game of the NCJHL finals series. They host the Gatineau-Hull Volant on Friday evening March 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (Gatineau) are a bigger, physical team,\u201d said Coach Allen, adding the Volant are strong in a power-play situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur discipline\u2019s going to have to be super efficient,\u201d said Coach Allen, adding that the Cougars also need to remember that they beat the Volant twice during the last three encounters with Gatineau during the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sunday was a good day for the Vankleek Hill Cougars as they won their semi-finals series against the Westport Rideaus. A 4-3 overtime win Saturday night for the Rideaus at the Vankleek Hill Arena meant the Cougars going on the road to Westport Sunday night for the seventh and deciding game in the series. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":105535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-loisirs"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n