Agius and Fang produce two-point nights for Admirals, but Caledon falls 5-3 to Cobourg  

By Jim Stewart

Ayden Agius and Jake Fang contributed two points each in the Caledon Admirals' narrow 5-3 loss to the Cobourg Cougars on Thursday night at the Mayfield Recreation Complex. 

The visitors' fifth goal was into an empty net with six seconds left after the Admirals had caged the Cougars with a sustained, suspenseful, but goal-less two-minute offensive zone blitz with the extra attacker.

Seventh-place Cobourg rolled into The Icebox on Thursday with a playoff position clinched. However, the Cougars (23-21-2-6) also found themselves immersed in a cat fight with the Pickering Panthers (23-25-1-4) for the OJHL West seventh-seed and needed a win against the feisty Admirals. The eighth-seed draws the mighty Trenton Golden Hawks (44-6-2-0) in the opening round.

The young Admirals (10-41-2-0) had their own source of motivation versus Cobourg. When the Cougars arrived in Caledon for their only visit this season, it marked the return of Jack Fang's old club. Fang, a talented forward who has made an impact since he arrived from Cobourg on January 4, earned two assists against his old teammates on Thursday.  

The excellent home ice effort put forth by the Admirals, after a pair of clunkers against Oakville and Milton last week, was explained by Assistant Captain Agius: “We wanted to win it for Jack Fang.  We wanted to put our best effort forward in the game for him. He played really well out there tonight with two assists in the second period to get us back in the game. We were also better tonight because we had the weekend off to help us recuperate after playing twelve games in three weeks.  We were ready to play tonight.”

The smooth-skating blueliner, who contributed a goal and an assist to the Admirals' attack, praised Blake Sloan's efforts, especially in the first two periods during which the acrobatic netminder made 23 saves.

“Blake's been a good goalie for us all year. He's great side to side and he's crazy quick with the glove. He gave us a chance to win tonight.”

The only shot to elude Sloan in the first period was Liam Oravsky's 15th of the season at 4:09.  Sloan repelled a couple of golden scoring opportunities by the green-clad Cougars to limit the visitors' lead to 1-0 after twenty minutes of play. 

Disaster struck the Admirals less than two minutes into the second period. Enjoying a 5-on-3 power play advantage, a Caledon defender lost an edge at the blue line and Cougar penalty killer Nico Laforge stole the puck with only open ice between him and Sloan. The speedy Laforge finished a clearcut, 110-foot breakaway by deking the Admirals' netminder and scoring on the backhand to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at 1:54.

Despite surrendering the shortie, the Admirals demonstrated resilience by converting their extra-man advantage one minute later. Agius showcased his marksmanship when his wrist shot from the left point beat Cougars' goaltender Reece Herman cleanly at 2:59.

Fang and Quenten Cheney earned assists on Agius's power play marker that lifted the spirits of the home side.

Admirals' forward Owen Meli made a nifty move in the slot to create space, deked Herman, and backhanded the biscuit into the cage at 4:27 to make it 2-2.  Fang and Eric He earned their tenth assists of the season on Meli's tying goal.

After Meli's 10th marker of the season, Sloan made a series of sensational saves to preserve the tie.

Particularly impressive was when the lefty goaltender flashed the leather and stole a goal in the slot at 12:22. However, two kick saves later, the Cougars finally beat Sloan and reclaimed a one-goal lead when Wyatt Gregory deftly tipped a pass from Laforge at 12:57.

Nathan Whipkey staked the visitors to a 4-2 lead when he converted a 2-on-1 rush at 14:37 by firing a wrist shot top shelf stick side past Sloan.

With 3:20 left in the hotly-contested second period, haymakers reminiscent of a vintage Don Cherry Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em video were dished out by Caledon combatants Quenten Chaney and Kaleb Young and Cougar agitators Declan Ready and Jesse English. The mid-ice melee earned the quartet fighting majors and game misconducts while Cobourg's Carson Durnin earned an unsportsmanlike misconduct for his role in inciting the dustup. 

After Cobourg's Carson Durbin earned a tripping minor at 11:58 of the final frame, Clarence Allain sniped his tenth of the season by picking the top corner from a tough angle to pull Caledon to within one.

Cobourg challenged the goal because, remarkably, the net was lifted off its moorings again by Herman who had already drawn two minor penalties for rearranging the rink's furniture to his liking. However, justice prevailed and Allain's marker was verified by video replay.

Cam Lang earned his 31st assist of the season on Allain's crafty power play goal and Agius notched his 16th assist on his entry pass to Lang. 

Despite the excellent empty net pressure exerted by the Admirals in the closing two minutes, Cougars' leading goal scorer Beckett Ewart fired his 26th of the season into the yawning cage at 19:54 to seal the deal for the visitors.

Despite Thursday's loss on home ice, Agius felt that team chemistry contributed to the Admirals' competitive effort against a playoff-bound team like Cobourg:  “The team's coming together really well at this part of the season. We're working towards next year and want to work hard in our remaining three games.  We're all working on little things to make each of us better and we're pushing each other to get better.  We want to play the role of spoiler as we finish the season.”

The Admirals' final home game of the season is Thursday, February 27 when they host the fifth-place Burlington Cougars (21-18-3-2).  Puck drop will be 7:30 p.m. at the Mayfield Recreation Complex.