Cougars take two games from the Michigan Wild to start the season
The Chicago Cougars began their 2015-16 inaugural campaign this weekend in Farmington Hills, MI against Eastern Conference foe, Michigan Wild.
In Friday’s contest the Cougars asserted themselves early establishing puck control over the Wild and producing numerous offensive opportunities. However, with some phenomenal Goaltending from the Wild, it took 15 minutes for the Cougars to strike when Nik Kropp tipped a shot in from Defenseman Joey Palermo to put the Cougars on the board.
In the 2nd period, Kropp again started the scoring 2:16 into the frame which ignited the Cougars for 5 goals in total. Matt Letmanski, Gavin Nickerson, Andrew Van Dyke, and Willy Doremus all found the back of the net. One more goal in the 3rd from Henry Laukkanen on a great pass by Gavin Nickerson made it 7 for the Cougars. Jessie Heisz stopped all shots he faced for his first shutout of the season and the final from Michigan was 7-0.
Saturday night the teams faced off again for a re-match of the previous night. The Cougars Andrew Van Dyke had a hat trick, Gavin Nickerson added two more, and the Cougars went on to complete the sweep of the Wild with an 8-0 victory. This time it was Dylan Gillis in net who preserved the shutout streak making some quality saves. Cody Hrabak, Jesper Lonnberg, and Mike Watson also had the goals for the Cougars.
Coach Stoffers from the second night “We weren’t as crisp tonight as we were last night, both with simple puck decisions and execution of systematic play, but it isn’t easy to beat a team two nights in a row on the road and our guys deserve credit for that in their opening weekend together.”
For a full recap and box scores of this weekend’s games you can visit www.usphl.com. The Cougars will face the MNJHL champion Dells Ducks this coming weekend in the Dells Friday and Saturday.
