The Aberdeen Cougars boys hockey team came away with a split of its home games against the Brookings Rangers Friday, Dec. 26 and Saturday, Dec. 28 inside the Odde Ice Center.
The Cougars fell to Brookings 4-0 on Saturday.
Trailing 1-0 after the first period, Aberdeen surrendered three goals in the second. The Rangers capitalized on two penalties scoring a pair of power play goals to make it a 3-0 advantage.
Aberdeen Cougars defenseman Jaxon Danielson knocks the puck away from the Cougars goal during the second period against the Brookings Rangers Saturday, Dec. 26 inside the Odde Ice Center. Aberdeen Insider photo by Robb Garofalo.
The Cougars committed six penalties in the second period.
“Penalties were an issue (Saturday),” said Cougars head coach Dana Myhre. “A couple of them were guys playing the puck and wound up with a trip. I mean it happens, unfortunately it happened too many times in that second period and (Brookings) scored on two of them. It just got away from us. The last couple of games we did a good job of keeping the penalties to a minimum.”
Myhre said he liked his team’s energy at the start of the game despite managing just two shots in the first period. Brookings would out-shoot Aberdeen 22-5 through the first two periods.
“(Brookings) did a good job taking away our time and space and we didn’t really handle that well,” Myhre said. “I thought we adjusted throughout the game but just not good enough. We didn’t do a good job getting the puck to their net. We didn’t move the puck as much as I’d like. Brookings was just very aggressive and won most of the one-on-one battle to get loose pucks.”
Andrew Weisenberger got the start in goal for the Cougars and made 20 saves, including three on a five-on-three advantage for the Rangers in the second period.
“Andrew kept us in the game and we really did a good job in front of him, blocking shots which is something we’ve talked about. We kept (Brookings) shots on goal a lot lower that it could have been,” Myhre said.
The Cougars had their best period of the game during the final 17 minutes. They held Brookings to just two shots on goal but Myhre said, the five shots his team put on Rangers goalie Neil Trygstad just weren’t enough.
“I felt like we out-played them in the third and we only gave up two shots on goal. It was a little too late but it was a good way to end. They didn’t quit playing and I thought we out-worked them in the third, we just couldn’t get a couple shots to get through,” he said.
The Cougars skated to a 4-2 win over Watertown Friday.
Carter Vilhauer scored two goals for Aberdeen including the opening goal of the game at the 4:20 mark of the first period and an empty netter to seal the contest with 18 seconds left.
Derek Holland and Trayke Roehrich both had second-period goals for the Cougars.
Weisenberger had 15 saves in goal for Aberdeen. The Cougars are now 2-5 on the year.
The Cougars return to the ice Saturday, Jan. 10 when they host the Sioux Center Storm.
Cougars girls hockey knocks off Mitchell, drops games to Sioux Falls and Brookings
The Aberdeen Cougars girls hockey went 1-2 over its three games Friday, Dec. 26 through Sunday, Dec. 28.
The Cougars wrapped up their three games with an 8-1 loss to Sioux Falls Sunday, Dec. 28 inside the Odde Ice Center. Leah Kranzler scored the lone goal for Aberdeen at the 3:31 mark of the third period.
The Cougars skated to a 3-2 win Saturday, Dec. 27 in the Odde.
Kaylee Dixon and Chloecherie Heagley both scored first-period goals. Dixon opened the scoring at the 7:25 mark coming off the assist by Olivia Sandvig and Addyson Keller.
Heagley made it a 2-0 lead at the 13:54 mark scoring off the assist by Rachel Siefken.
Calley Gage scored what proved to be the game-winner less than two minutes into the second period giving the Cougars a 3-0 lead.
Mitchell would score two unanswered goals to make it a one-goal deficit. Cougars goaltender Chloe Vikander would make that lead hold up turning back 21 shots to secure the win.
The Cougars return to action Saturday, Jan. 17 when they host Sioux Center.