The South Grenville Rangers welcomed the Vankleek Hill Cougars to the Ingredion Centre in Cardinal on Sat., March 9, for game one of the best of seven NCJHL semifinal. The Rangers’ power forward, Jordan Dodge tries to get past the poke check of the Cougars’ goalie, Alexandre Lebreche as his defensemen, Keean McEachern closes in. Lebreche and the Cougars went onto pick up a 5-2 victory and a 1-0 series lead. Moore photo
CARDINAL—The South Grenville Rangers were supposed to play two playoff games this past weekend to open their series against the Vankleek Hill Cougars. The Rangers welcomed the Cougars to Cardinal on Saturday night but their game scheduled for Sunday afternoon was postponed due to bad weather.
Cougars 5 Rangers 2
The South Grenville Rangers welcomed the Vankleek Hill Cougars to the Ingredion Centre in Cardinal on Sat., March 9, for game one of the best of seven NCJHL semifinal. The Rangers were coming off a sweep of the Metcalfe Jets in the first round of the playoffs while the Cougars were forced to a game six by the Bytown Royals in their series.
The Cougars opened the scoring when Hugo Blanchard scored from Jacob Trempe at 4:58 of the first period taking a 1-0 lead. The Cougars made it 2-0 when Blanchard scored his second of the game from Trempe at 7:06.
The Rangers cut the deficit in half when Cameron Dillon snapped one home from Braydan Forrestell at 12:15. The Cougars took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. The Cougars took a two-goal lead when Tristan Lavoie scored from Nicolas Castonguay and Blanchard with 1:21 remaining in the middle frame on the power play. The Cougars took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Cougars opened up a three-goal advantage when Lavoie scored his second of the game from Blanchard at 5:46 of the third period on the power play.
The Cougars scored their third power play of the game when Jonathan Lacroix scored from Castonguay and Samuel Lacroix at 14:36. The Rangers closed out the scoring with just one second remaining as Mathieu Giroux fired one to the back of the net from Drew Holmes and Hayden Sayeau on the power play.
The Cougars took game one 5-2 taking a 1-0 series lead. Picking up the win in the Cougars’ goal was Alex Labreche and suffering the loss in the Rangers’ goal was Lee Spurgeon.
Up next
The South Grenville Rangers travel to the Vankleek Hill Arena on Wed., March 13, to take on the Cougars in game three of the NCJHL semifinal at 8:15 p.m. and head back to Vankleek Hill on Fri., March 15, for game four at 8:10 p.m.; they welcome the Cougars to the Ingredion Centre in Cardinal on Sat., March 16, at 7:40 p.m. for game five. The scene shifts back to Vankleek Hill for game six on Sun., March 17, at 3:15 p.m., if necessary, and game seven will be played in Cardinal on Tues., March 19.
