Cougars Hockey Can’t Find Winning Ways

STOCKHOLM — The Chatham ice hockey team dropped its third straight game, this time to Jefferson High School, 4-3, on Saturday at Skylands Ice World.

The Cougars got on the board first off a goal by sophomore forward Alex Rauter, who was assisted by sophomore forward Danny Casey and junior defenseman Connor Nelson with 6:06 left in the first period. The Cougars held the lead or a tie until 8:30 in the third period, when Jefferson senior forward Luke Combos scored on a breakaway.

"We had to score," Combos said. "We had to go hard. Everybody had to be moving and just put the puck in the net."

Chatham Head Coach Harvey Cohen said his team needs to find ways to hold on the leads.

"We have to kill penalties better," he said. "We gave up three power play goals today."

With a 1-0 lead early in the first period, the Cougars quickly let up a power play goal less than two minutes after their first score as Combos netted his first goal of the game with 4:55 left in the first period. Junior forward Jimmy Flotard assisted on the goal.

In the second period, the Falcons continued their momentum with another power play goal from junior forward Steve Cole with 8:22 to play.

With only 23 seconds left in the second period Casey scored on a power play to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the third.

Casey came out strong in the third period, netting his second goal of the game just under two minutes into the period to regain the lead.

But that was the last of the scoring for the Cougars. The Falcons came right back and Flotard picked up their third power play goal of the game with 11:52 left in the game before Combos netted the game-winner.

"It's pretty big," Combos said. "We needed Chatham. They beat us in our home tournament last time we played them so we had to come out big and beat them this time."

Chatham beat the Falcons 5-2 on Dec. 29 in the midst of a three-game winning streak earlier this season, but they have not been able to pick up a victory since.

"We're trying to figure out [why we're unable to hold the early lead]," Cohen said. "Either it's focus or concentration, but Jefferson played a good game today."

The Cougars fell to 5-5-1 on the season and the Falcons improved to 7-4. Chatham's schedule does not get any easier as it takes on undefeated Morris Knolls High School on Thursday at Mennen Arena.

"It's going to be a very tough matchup, but you never know," Cohen said.