The Carman Cougars opened their 2023-24 Manitoba High School Athletics Association Zone 4 regular hockey season with a record of 1-3-1.
The Cougars won their first regular season game Nov. 6 with a 7-4 victory over the Mountain Mustangs. Grant Friesen and Ethan Wilde led the charge with a pair of goals each, while Brayden Porier, Kolton Worms and Dane Bergen had the others. Maysen Mazurat stopped 30 shots in the Cougars’ goal for the win.
All except for one game, each gamehas been within reach with multiple lead changes, but Carman unfortunately took the loss. The Cougars now sits in seventh place in the eight-team league.
Cougars’ head coach, Michael Heatherington, notes that the team started its preseason great, accumulating four wins and one loss.
“It really made it difficult to make our final selections as we saw a lot of success in the preseason,” said Heatherington. “Making the final roster is always a tough process and never fun for a coach. That being said, we were happy with our final roster and were looking forward to the start of the season.”
“Special teams is something that we’ve been working on lately in practice as we noticed that was where a lot of our goals against were coming from,” said Heatherington.
Ethan Wilde is leading the team in scoring with 16 points, followed closely by Brayden Porier and Josh Hiebert, who have 13 and 12 points, respectively. Goaltender Mayzen Mazurat continues to stand on his head for the Cougars night in and night out as he boasts a 2.86 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
“Our scoring has been a positive for us this year as we’re currently leading the league in goals for. Keeping them out of our net is where we’re looking to buckle down. We’ve had solid goaltending this year, but we don’t want to become too reliant on that, so getting the puck out of our end cleaner is another goal for us.”
Overall, Heatherington is happy with how the team has progressed since our season started.
“We’re keeping positive and are making the right adjustments as we move along. We’re hoping, with our first win coming last week, that we can build off of that and hopefully finish the year somewhere in the top four or five teams in the league.”
The Carman Cougars High School hockey team has also scheduled and organized an initiative for their upcoming Nov. 15 game.
They will host a Cancer Awareness game in Carman vs. the Portage (PCI) Trojans (7:30 p.m. at the Carman Arena). The Cougars will donate all proceeds from the gate admission, the 50/50 draw, chocolate moustache sales, and raffle ticket sales to Boundary Trails Health Center – Cancer Care.
Everyone is encouraged to come out to support the team and the fundraiser on Nov. 15.
