(Kallaway Mercer is off to a great start with the Cobourg Cougars, with four points in three games since joining the junior A hockey club. Photo by Tim Bates/OJHL Images)
By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
The Cobourg Cougars bounced back from a shutout loss Saturday to defeat the Haliburton County Huskies at home Monday night.
Kallaway Mercer scored with 4:10 left in regulation time to lift the Cougars to a 6-5 victory over the Huskies in the Ontario Junior Hockey League game at the Cobourg Community Centre.
Mercer, who is from Port Hope, also assisted on Cobourg’s other third-period goal from Parker Hendsbee that put the club up 5-3 at the time. The 19-year-old has four points in three games since joining the Cougars after spending Ontario Hockey League training camp with the Peterborough Petes. He previously played 83 OHL games with the Kingston Frontenacs.
“Kal is a tremendously skilled hockey player with experience playing in the Ontario Hockey League for multiple seasons. Being a local player, it made a lot of sense I think for both parties for him to come into the fold,” said Cougars head coach Wes Wolfe. “He’s made an immediate impact in the lineup. He has a scoring touch that I think we may have been lacking a little bit. Just his veteran presence and experience playing at a higher level is something that I think a lot of our players are going to be able to learn from whether it’s his approach to how he prepares for games and practices or just his mindset throughout the game.”
Cobourg (3-3-0-0) had lost 5-0 to the Huskies (3-3-0-0) in Minden on Saturday. It was a disappointing outcome and what Wolfe considered his club’s worst game in the going of this campaign.
Monday’s performance was much more encouraging, even with the Cougars relinquishing a pair of two-goal leads.
“I really liked how the team came out and started the game in response on Monday night,” Wolfe said. “At the end of the day good teams find a way to win hockey games and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Cougars jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Steven Whittle at 2:56 and and Zach Smith, on a power play, at 5:31. The Huskies answered back midway through the opening frame with a pair of goals, including the first of three from Oliver Tarr and a shorthanded marker by Patrick Saini.
Whittle, who had a three-point night, scored again at 14:23 of the first and teammate Isaac Pascoal tallied the lone goal of the second period to restore the two-goal Cobourg advantage.
Tarr completed his hat trick with two more goals in the third. All of his goals in the contest cut the deficit to one for his club each time. He scored 2:32 into the final frame and again at 14:47 after Hendsbee’s goal for the Cougars.
Nick Athanasaskos evened the score 5-5 at the 15:20 mark of the third. Mercer replied for the Cougars 30 seconds later with the goal that stood up as the winner.
Wolfe credits the coaching and relentless play from the Huskies, working hard to retrieve pucks and clogging up the neutral zone to maintain possession of the puck.
“They created a lot of turnovers and made it tough for us and they never gave up on the game,” Wolfe remarked. “They deserve a lot of credit for the game they played.”
Wolfe said it was another lesson for the Cougars after squandering a three-goal lead in the third period last Monday, Oct. 11 in a 7-4 loss to the Trenton Golden Hawks.
“As this team grows into itself, I think learning how to play with the lead and be a winning team is a process we need to go through,” Wolfe said. “It was nice to finish the job (Monday against the Huskies) even if it didn’t look exactly how we wanted.”
Next up for the Cougars is a pair of road games: Friday evening 7:30 p.m. in Lindsay against the Muskies (4-3-0-1) and Saturday evening 8 p.m. in Caledon against the Admirals (0-6-0-0).
Wolfe said there have also been a lot of positives this season and wants his club to build on those successes, but with a consistent 60-minute effort. Especially with a busy stretch of nine games in 20 days about to begin.
“The two days leading up to it are going to be sort of our last opportunities to practice on the ice as a group,” Wolfe said. “I would really like to see us clean up our defensive zone habits whether it’s establishing some box-outs or shoulder checks and making sure we’re communicating in our end. I thought that was something the last two games that started to slip away a little bit.”
Wolfe said he’s started to notice the trend around the league of home teams being at even more of an advantage than normal. Teams have their routines disrupted at opposing rinks.
“You go to road games and you’re not allowed in the building as early as you normally would be to get in a dynamic warm-up and do all your pre-game meetings,” Wolfe said. “We have evaluated what that routine looks like for us and how we’re going to mitigate the affects of the changing protocol for what would be a road game. We need to make sure we have the level of preparation and readiness that we’re looking for to play a good road game.”
