Peterborough Pre-Gamer

Hey Sports Fans!

After a flat 4-0 loss in Bowmanville yesterday, the Cougars have a chance for quick redemption at home against the Liftlock Stars.  The season series between Cobourg and Peterborough has been competitive, and rightly so as they are next to each other in the standings.  Look for both teams to play an energetic game as each side needs to gain some points now before they lose too much ground in the standings.

A quick look at the stats will bear out the fact that the Liftlock stars are absolutely bereft of a go-to guy up front.  Their leading scorer is Jeff Swift with 12 goals and 21 points.  In contrast, the Cougars have 7 players with 20 points or more, one being stalwart defenseman Lawton McCracken, and 4 players with at least 13 goals on the season.  There is no question that Cobourg holds the edge in goal-scoring ability.

This begs the question: How are the Stars 3 points ahead of the Cougars with 3 games in hand?

The Answer(s): Special teams, and two-goal games.

Peterborough's PK operates at an efficient 86%, good for 5th in the league. Cobourg's PK is a mediocre 79.6% although it has improved from a few weeks ago when they were hovering around 75%.

And yes, two-goal games have been Cobourg's Achilles' Heel all year long.  Weird, right?  Well, the Cougars sport a fantastically awful 0-10 record in games decided by 2 goals.  (Poinstreak posts the record as "0-0-0-10" despire the fact that it is impossible to get an extra point in a 2-goal game...)  Meanwhile Peterborough is a respectable 4-3 in similarly tallied tilts.  Is there any significance to this stat?  Not really.  But it sure is odd.

Anyways, come on out to arena tonight!  Same cat-time, same cat-channel! (With apologies to Adam West.)

Go Cougars!