Nobody needed a reminder of the 12-1 defeat that the Burlington Cougars handed the St. Michael’s Buzzers six weeks ago at the beginning of December. The sting from a loss like that, especially one that comes on home ice, should take a long time to go away. The Buzzers needed to drastically improve their work ethic and their play in the defensive zone in order to have a chance to stay with a very deep Cougars’ team in the rematch on Friday night.
Through two periods, the Buzzers were, indeed, much improved in those areas and were very much in the game even though they trailed 4-3. However, a poor start to the third period in which Burlington scored four times in the first six minutes and forty three seconds took St. Michael’s out of the game as the Cougars cruised to an 8-5 victory – the six consecutive game in which they have scored at least seven goals.
Phil Brewer put Burlington up 1-0 early in the first period when he cut in off the left wing and tucked a good shot up into the top right corner of the net over the glove of Jon Loparco. Just over five minutes later, Patrick Stiller grew the lead to a pair of goals on the power play when he collected a rebound from a Greg Carey shot and put it in from a bad angle after he was left uncovered at the side of the net by the Buzzers’ defence.
Late in the frame though, St. Michael’s climbed back to within one goal when Jesse Beamish found Lucas Lessio, who charged hard to the front of the net, with a cross ice pass for a tap in.
Jason Popek responded quickly for the Cougars early in the second period on the power play, deflecting a shot over the shoulder of Jon Loparco from the top of the goal crease to restore the two goal lead. It did not take long though for the Buzzers to cut the lead once again when Jesse Beamish fired a good wrist shot past Cougars’ netminder Jonathon McQueen from the top of the right wing circle.
At the 9:03 mark, Burlington jumped in front by a pair of goals for the third time in the game when Patrick Koudys was able to step into the slot and beat Loparco with a hard wrist shot. Toward the end of the middle frame, St. Michael’s scored a big goal on the power play to get back to within one when Mike Neville carried the puck into the zone with speed and found Tyler Forbes, who beat his check to the net, with a cross ice pass for a one-timer.
“Tonight I thought we came out pretty well, I think we did a pretty good job, eliminating as much as we could, the Jooris and Carey line so I didn’t think they got much going at five on five play,” said Buzzers’ Head Coach Mike DePellegrin. “However, against a top ranked team, the first place team in our league for a reason, they can capitalize, they don’t need second chances.”
Though the Cougars’ top scorers of Josh Jooris and Greg Carey combined for five points in the game, three of those points came on the power play. A late goal in the third period from Greg Carey, on which Jooris picked up an assist, was the only damage the Cougars’ dynamic pairing did at even strength. The goal itself though was more of a fluke than anything as Carey’s shot from the half boards ricocheted off an abandoned stick at the top of the crease leaving Jon Loparco with no chance to make a stop.
Anthony Rizzo and Mike Neville turned in outstanding defensive efforts in neutralizing the Cougars’ top tandem as they spent the better part of the game in the back pockets of Carey and Jooris, respectively.
“We had (Anthony) Rizzo on (Greg) Carey and (Mike) Neville on (Josh) Jooris with (Mike) Capicotto on that line and I think they did a pretty good job of eliminating them from the play,” said DePellegrin. “For Rizzo, I’m glad he responded because up until now, he was down on the fourth line and he was struggling a little bit but he rose to the occasion tonight.”
The problem the Buzzers faced though in defending against a team like the Cougars is that they are so deep in offensive weapons, even if two can be identified and shut down; there are so many others that can step up and do damage. While Carey and Jooris were relatively quiet, players like Phil Brewer, Patrick Stiller, Jason Popek and Chris Carr – who are all scoring at well over a point per game pace – stepped up to drive Burlington’s offense.
“That’s exactly it, they are in first place for a reason,” said DePellegrin, as he mused over the seemingly endless string of offensive weapons that Burlington can boast. “They’ve got a lot of strength up front. I thought today we did a fairly good job of eliminating their top line but yet, their second and third waves of offense still buried pucks behind us. You can’t make a mistake against this team because they’ll capitalize. They’ve got a strong team with four very deep lines.”
Just twenty one seconds into the third period, the Cougars put their depth on display as Phil Brewer scored his second goal of the game to once again restore the two goal lead. That goal seemed to deflate the Buzzers somewhat as Burlington scored again at the 1:50 mark courtesy of Chris Carr. Brewer completed his hat trick effort at the 4:50 mark before the aforementioned Greg Carey goal capped the Cougars’ scoring.
Late in the period, Lucas Lessio – outstanding since returning with a silver medal from the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge with Team Ontario having scored six goals and nine points in his last four games – notched his second marker of the contest after again going hard to the front of the net before converting a Jesse Beamish pass. At the 18:03 mark, Dan Cameron scored his eleventh goal of the season after walking out from the corner and beating McQueen with a backhand shot, cutting the deficit to three goals.
Efficient work in practice will be vital for St. Michael’s now as they try to stay sharp with just two games in the next two weeks – Saturday January 23rd against the Orangeville Crushers and Friday January 29th against the Upper Canada Patriots.
“Practice has now changed a little bit with a lot of five on five battle type of stuff and a lot of game simulation stuff and because we don’t have much over the next while in terms of games, we’re also throwing in some off-ice work as well just to keep the guys sharp and in shape,” said DePellegrin.
