Cougars season ends with 4-0 sweep at hands of Penetang
By Jon Yaneff

Dan Naccaratto let this shot fly in Thursday's decisive match against Penetang. Owing to age restrictions, it was the last game in a Cougar uniform for him and Shane Jones.

It was a hard-fought battle the whole way, but the Schomberg Cougars' inexperience was evident as the team was swept 4-0, in their best-of-seven Georgian Mid-Ontario (division of the Ontario Hockey Association) series against the Penetang Kings.

The Cougars played the closest game of the series in the final contest Thursday night at home, as the Kings doubled-up Schomberg, 6-3.

Penetang got the early lead 52 seconds in the first period, as Lenny Robillard potted a goal with Ryan Giesler assisting.

The Cougars then tied the game at 6:34 of the first with Adam Green (assisted by Dan Naccaratto) beating Kings' Corey Moore.

After that, the Cougars ran into penalty trouble and Penetang took advantage by scoring three power-play goals as the first came about the halfway mark (10:02) of the period when Brad Baum (assisted by Shayne Weight and Adam Heskamp) chipped the puck towards the net as it just barely got by Cougar goaltender Aaron Green.

Kelly Loughran (assisted by Wendel Jacobs and Evan Cole) and Marc Duquette (assisted by Greg Cerilli) added to the Kings' lead to give them a 4-1 advantage heading into the second period.

Cougar forward Enrico Ferri (assisted by Naccaratto) tried to mount the comeback for his team by notching a goal 42 seconds into the second, but Penetang put the game out of reach with two more goals from Bradyn Parent (assisted by Cole) and Craig Speers (assisted by Kevin Imnoff and Baum)

The Cougars' Justin Brooks finished the game's scoring with about two minutes left in the second period as he exploded on a pass from goalie Green.

Not much went on in the third as the Cougars only managed one shot in the period, and were out shot 47-18 overall in the game.

Green had 41 saves in Game 4 as he kept his team in the game as well as for the majority of the series.

"There was a lot of emotion and compassion shown throughout the entire series," said Green, 17, who was playing in his first playoff series of his junior C career. "We have to give our players a lot of credit for sticking around even though we were losing games, that shows a lot."

"We have no complaints on how we finished the game," said Cougars Head Coach Gary Waldrum. "The series was good experience for our young players. We're in good shape right now for the future as long as our players stick together and continue to work hard."

Next season is the 40th anniversary for the Cougars franchise and the team will be searching for trainers, coaches throughout the community to help them out. The team expects 10-12 returning players and will also make additions at the beginning of the season.

The majority of the Cougars players this season were 17 and 18-years-old, and only carried two overaged, 21-year-olds, whereas four is the option most teams in the league took advantage of.

If necessary Schomberg would have continued the series at home Saturday at 6:45 p.m., instead the Cougars had an optional scrimmage to raise money for the team.