After a week of practice the Lindsay Muskies finally got a chance to face some opposition in the form of the Cobourg Cougars as they faced off in exhibition action on Saturday night at the Lindsay Recreation Complex. Lindsay roared out to an early 3-0 lead, but despite being heavily out shot Cobourg continued to chip away and wound up with a 4-3 shootout victory. The game was the second of the pre season for the Cougars.
The Muskies got off to a strong start when Alex Clements was able to come down the right side and sneak a sharp angled shot just over the glove hand of Cobourg netminder Kienan Brown. The lone assist went to Will Sullivan. Just under two minutes later the lead was doubled when newcomer Felix Chamberland put a high wrist shot over Brown's glove at 3:26. The assists on that goal went to Dean Klomp, and Jesse Gregory. At 8:49 on a Lindsay power play Brown made a nice toe save on a goal mouth scramble but the rebound came right to Bryan Hignett who made it 3-0 from Sullivan, and Brett Banks. Shortly afterward Cobourg started to get a bit of momentum forcing Muskies starting netminder Matt Robson into his first saves of the game. The pressure resulted in a Cobourg power play which they were able to convert at 11:04 when Connor Armour scored from Mitchell Burghardt, and Donald Rudd. The Cougars came close to grabbing another when Loren Ulett made a nice cut to the front of the Muskies goal but his shot found the left goalpost with just over three minutes left in the period. The period ended with Cobourg just beginning another power play that would carry over into the second. The final shots in the frame were 14-6 in favour of Lindsay.
Early in the second with the man advantage the Cougars generated some good chances but Robson came up big to maintain the two goal Lindsay cushion. Moments later the Muskies found themselves up two men for just over a minute, and although they had many excellent chances they failed increase their lead. The penalty parade continued, and with Cobourg on a power play, and a delayed penalty coming to the Muskies, Armour grabbed his second of the game at 5:38 from Brodie Meyers to make it 3-2. The teams continued to trade chances for the remainder of the frame but the netminders were up to the task. Second period shot totals were 19-12 in favour of Lindsay.
The teams came out hard in the third, but nothing changed on the scoreboard till 11:50 when Cobourg created a 2 on 1 down low. Colbie Andrews took a nice feed from Meyers and put it over the glove of Robson to knot the score at three apiece. With 4:55 remaining Corey Jackson ripped a shot from the top of the left face off circle but Brown made a fine glove save. Lindsay once again held the shot advantage at 16-9, but there was no more scoring for the rest of the way so we were off to overtime.
The Muskies again carried the play in the overtime session, but Brown held the fort for the Cougars. With eight seconds left, and the draw deep in Cougar territory Lindsay Head Coach Paul Mattucci called his time out to draw up a play, but it was to no avail and we headed to a shootout.
In the shootout Dylan Goddard scored on the opening attempt for Cobourg, and despite a couple of big stops from Robson, it was Brown at the Cobourg end who denied all three Muskie shooters to seal the victory.
After the game Coach Mattucci was happy with clubs effort. The play was a little scrambly at times, but that's to be expected.. He also referred to the fact that he has not focused on penalty killing yet in practice which may have lead to a goal or two.
Mattucci was happy with the play of Robson in goal, as well as Felix Chamerland. He also mentioned the steadiness of Corey Jackson on defence. Jackson was picked up from the Soo Thunderbirds and has RBC Cup experience that Mattucci will be looking to draw on.
The next game for the Fish is Monday night in Cobourg.
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