Jacob Gilbert scores the overtime winner for the Cobourg Cougars in OJHL action Saturday night at the Cobourg Community Centre. The Cougars rallied to defeat the Wellington Dukes 4-3 in their home opener. (Photo by Tim Bates/OJHL Images)
By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Jacob Gilbert’s second goal of the game 3:17 into overtime lifted the Cobourg Cougars to a 4-3 comeback victory over the Wellington Dukes in Ontario Junior Hockey League action Saturday night at the Cobourg Community Centre.
The Cougars trailed 3-1 until 6:15 remaining in the third period when George Krotiris collected a rebound from a Gilbert shot and buried it past Dukes goaltender Matt Dunsmoor. Tai York netted his first OJHL goal with 2:14 left in regulation time to even the score.
Gilbert’s overtime winner was scored on the power play after the Dukes received a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
“It was electric, honestly. Just a shot from the point, I saw it coming and just saw the boys coming off the bench,” Gilbert said. “That was huge for us.”
Cobourg, hosting its home opener against the Dukes, was coming off a 9-5 loss in Trenton against the Golden Hawks on Friday night while Wellington won its home opener 4-1 against the Mississauga Chargers.
With the Cougars trailing 1-0 after the second period on Saturday, Gilbert notched his first goal of the game just 20 seconds into the third.
“We knew coming into that period we needed to come out with a fast start and that’s exactly what we did,” Gilbert said. “A puck popped up to me in the o-zone there and I just got lucky burying it.”
Payton Schaly, who had also scored the first Dukes goal of the game on a power play, restored his club’s lead 5:58 into the third period. Wellington registered 17 shots against Cougars goaltender Carter Tahk in the first period, but it was the 18th puck sent his way and first of the second period that finally got past him.
Tahk stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced. The third goal was a power-play marker by Jonathan Balah, assisted by Barret Joynt who had four points Friday and Schaly, at 10:44 of the third period.
Cobourg continued to battle hard and surrendered just the one power play goal through two periods despite having four penalties called against them while the Dukes had none.
“We stuck with it. That was an awesome win for us,” Gilbert said. “Getting those two points was huge for us, especially against Welly. We just knew we had to play our game and do what our coaching staff has taught us in the months leading up to this season. We executed that perfectly and came out with the win.”
Cougars head coach Wes Wolfe said his players showed a lot of resiliency through killing penalties and coming back to win while missing some veteran players, including 20 years olds Justin Jamer and Ben Hamilton and 19-year-old Zach Smith, who will turn 20 later this month.
Jamer and Smith, both forwards, were injured in Friday’s game against Trenton. Jamer is expected to miss six weeks while the timeline for Smith’s absence is still unknown. It’s hoped that Hamilton, a defenceman acquired from the Dukes in the off-season, could return to the lineup by the end of next week.
“A lot of guys had an opportunity to step up and they certainly did tonight,” Wolfe said. “We wanted to make sure that we took pride in our detail without the puck.
“I think (Friday) night there were a lot of positive things. Our team executed what we wanted while we had the puck, but there were a lot of mistakes that led to odd-man rushes and scoring chances against that are preventable. The way that the team played tonight is exactly what we want to see in terms of our identity and it was really nice to see them come through with the win.”
The Cougars (1-1-0-0) return to action Monday night when they host the Lindsay Muskies (1-1-0-0). Game time is 7 p.m. at the CCC.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
