The Aberdeen Cougars came out aggressively, took advantage of their opportunities and picked up their first win of the young season with a 7-1 boys’ hockey triumph over the Huron All-Stars at the Odde Ice Center Saturday night.

The Cougars were consistently quicker to the puck all game and translated that into 43 shots on goal en route to the victory.

“That was one of things that we talked about. In the offensive zone we need to be playing on our toes and winning the 50-50 races, both the race and the battle,” said Aberdeen coach Jeremey Backous. “We have to be coming out with the puck and I think just with our offensive zone time we did that a lot of the night.”

After Huron scored the opening goal of the contest, it was all Cougars after that.

Jadon Jorgenson and Jacob Scheel scored goals before Carson Myhre produced back-to-back goals to give the hosts a 4-1 advantage after the opening period.

Myhre, a freshman, is one of a group of younger players who is making an immediate impact on the squad.

“It feels really good to be contributing to the team and helping out,” Myhre said.

He said the older players on the team (there are 13 seniors this year) have welcomed the newcomers and that the team has a good chemistry.

“Everyone gets along really well,” Myhre said. “They help us and tell us stuff that we need to know.”

A trio of those seniors, Kasen Claymore, Marson Carrels and Jacob Grau, each added second period goals for the final margin of difference.

Backous said the blend of upperclassmen and younger members on the squad has worked well so far.

“We’ve had some good senior leadership,” Backous said, “and then the younger kids pushing each other and the leadership bringing them along.”

While the Cougars scored three short-handed goals in the game, there were more penalties than Backous would like.

He said the stoppage in play disrupts his team’s rhythm.

“From our standpoint, it’s really tough to develop any flow to our offensive game when you’re either killing penalties or you’re on a power play,” he said. “It makes it tough.”

The Cougars are now 1-1 on the season, bouncing back from an overtime setback to Oahe on Friday night.

When asked about positive takeaways from the weekend, Myhre responded, “We had a really good power play, we skated the puck really good and made plays.”

Aberdeen now gets a break before hosting Watertown on Friday, Dec. 17. That will start a busy stretch of games through the holidays.

“We have pretty heavy schedule coming up with some good solid teams,” Backous said. “We just have to be getting better every day.”

Huron All-Stars 1 0 0 – 1

Aberdeen Cougars 4 3 0 – 7

First Period: 1, H, Andrew Arteman (Connor McCloud), 14:04; 2, AC, Jadon Jorgenson (Jacob Grau), 12:25; 3, AC, Jacob Scheel (Mason Carrels), 12:17; 4, Carson Myhre (unassisted) 10:49; 5, AC, Myhre (Carrels), 1:11.

Second Period: 6, AC, Kasen Claymore (Carrels, Myhre), 6:58; 7, AC, Carrels (Scheel, Jorgenson), 4:48; 8, AC, Grau (Ian Ahlberg), 1:23.

Third Period: No scoring.

Shots on Goal: Huron All-Stars 7; Aberdeen Cougars 43.

Goalies: Huron All-Stars, Cooper Letcher; Aberdeen Cougars, Samuel Casper.