Cougars end their slump with two wins over Midland
By Bill Rea

Eddie Wiederer opened the scoring for their Cougars in Thursday's victory over Midland.

No matter how you do it, when you end a losing streak, it's good news.

That means the Schomberg Cougars are coming off a good week.

They posted two overdue victories, with the Midland Flyers as their victims both times.

They posted a solid 7-3 win at home Thursday night, then took the show on the road for a closer contest Sunday afternoon in Midland. They needed overtime and some unassisted heroics by Joe Digirolamo with four seconds left on the clock, but they prevailed 4-3.

"I don't think it would be a winning streak yet, but we're working on it," commented Head Coach Gary Waldrum after Sunday's match.

The Cougars were actually down 2-1 at the end of the first period Thursday, but they took charge in the second, putting away three unanswered goals, then following that up with three more in the third. The Flyers got a rather flukey goal with about five minutes remaining when the puck sort of floated over a sprawling Ty LeGrow, landing in the crease, and Midland's Ryan Tindale poked it home.

Mitch Ronan was helping to apply pressu re on the Midland net late in the second period.

LeGrow is a new acquisition from the Erin Shamrocks. The 19-year-old Georgetown resident had been sitting on the side with injuries, and said he was glad to get some ice time with his new mates. He faced 34 shots in his initiation with the team.

"It just felt good to get back in the net," he said after the match. "I hadn't been in for about a month and a half."

Eddie Wiederer has also returned to the Cougar ranks, and showed his stuff early Thursday by scoring the side's first goal.

He said he hadn't been playing this season. He plans to attend college in January, and decided to get some playing time in.

"Hopefully, we've learned what we can do when we're mentally prepared to play," Waldrum said after the game.

He added the team has been making a lot of basic mistakes over the season. "We're learning to cut down on those mistakes," he said.

The scoring was spread around the roster. In addition to Wiederer, Mitch Ronan, Thomas Faris, Mike Digirolamo, Joe Digirolamo, Jason McMann and Keith Thomson each got one goal. Mike Shuryn led the way in the assist department with three, Dave Munshaw and Shane Jones had two each and Pat Homersham and Mike Digirolamo got one apiece.

The scoring duties were split again Sunday, with Munshaw, Brady Shuman and Blake Elliott contributing markers to go with Digirolamo's overtime goal. Jones collected two assists, with singles being counted by McMann, Matt Steenhoek and Ronan.

The spreading out of the scoring is a big plus in Waldrum's eyes. "It makes us a much more difficult team to play against," he observed.

The two wins pulled the Cougars out of the basement of the Georgian Mid- Ontario division standings. They are in sixth place with eight points, 10 back of the fifth place Erin Shamrocks.

And they face these Shamrocks opponents this week in a home-and-home series.

It starts in Schomberg tomorrow (Thursday) night, starting at 7:30 p.m., then

moves to Erin Saturday night, starting at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars will also be taking a Sunday afternoon trip north to Stayner for a match against the Siskins. The puck will drop at 1:30 p.m.