By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
The second round of Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs will get underway Sunday for the Cobourg Cougars.
Coming off a two-game sweep against the Wellington Dukes, the Cougars are now set to take on the Haliburton County Huskies in the East Division final, also a best-of-three series. The Huskies knocked out the Trenton Golden Hawks in three games in the opening round.
Game 1, hosted by the Huskies, will be played Sunday afternoon at the S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena in Minden at 2 p.m. The Cougars will host Game 2 on Monday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Cobourg Community Centre.
If necessary, the third-and-deciding contest is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Minden.
Haliburton won five of eight meetings between the two clubs during the regular season while Cobourg won two and there was one tie. The Huskies, in third place, finished eight points ahead of the Cougars in fourth.
The playoff series victory, though, is up for grabs with another best-of-three showdown that resulted in the top two teams in the East Division being quickly eliminated from the postseason.
The regular season was extended and completed in full following a January shutdown due to provincial government restrictions. Following the second round, the conference finals will be best-of-five series and the Buckland Cup league championship final will be a traditional best-of-seven series.
Other round two match-ups in the second round of OJHL playoffs are the Toronto Jr. Canadiens vs the North York Rangers in the South Division final, Pickering Panthers vs Collingwood Blues in the North Division final and the Burlington Cougars vs Milton Menace in the West Division final.
The East is the only division in which the top two seeds did not survive the first round.
