Sioux Center took advantages in front of the Aberdeen goal and skated away with a 6-2 victory over the Cougars in boys’ hockey action Saturday afternoon at the Odde Ice Center.

The vistors never trailed in the contest and played the game on their terms.

“We just didn’t have any compete level today. I mean the 50-50 pucks, they were winning the battles. We just didn’t have any energy,” said Cougars coach Jeremey Backous. “That’s one of things that we talked about is that if we don’t work, nothing we do will. We have to do work and we have to have energy and we just didn’t have any of that today. I was expecting a better performance out of the team today and we just were not good in any area.”

Sioux Center scored the first two goals before Phillip Zens got the Cougars on the board late in the first period.

However, the Storm dominated the second period, scoring three unanswered goals to take control. The visitors had five goals in their first 11 shots on goal.

“That’s part of the compete. They were hungry for loose pucks. We were standing around watching a lot,” Backous said. “We weren’t picking up assignments and when you leave guys in front of the net uncovered, it doesn’t end well for us.”

Another issue for the Cougars was penalties. The home team was often short handed on the ice trying to kill off Sioux Center power players. Aberdeen was whistled for 12 penalties in all.

“It was just a terrible game from our perspective. We just cannot continue to put ourselves in positions to take penalties and expect to come out on top,” Backous said. “It’s just undisciplined and it’s frustrating, and we have to figure out a way to get beyond that.”

Lucas Vanberkel had a hat trick for the Storm. Grady Duden added a pair of goals.

Jacob Grau scored the other goal for the Cougars on a well executed play.

“There was some nice playmaking at times, but we have to be able to string that together, shift after shift after shift,” Backous said. “The goal that Jacob Grau scored on the end coming through the neutral zone, that was a really nice give and go play and he finished the play. That’s what we have to do (today). As bad as this one hurts, we have to leave the rink and forget about it and we just have to be better (today).”

The same two teams face each other at 11 this morning at the Odd Ice Center.

It is big game for the Cougars who are fighting for playoff positioning.

“We need to beat these guys (today), just looking at possible pairings for the state tournament,” Backous said, “so it’s a big game for us and we have to respond.”

Sioux Center 2 3 1 – 6

Aberdeen Cougars 1 0 1 – 2

First Period: 1, SC, Grady Duden (Matthew King), 12:02; 2, SC, Lucas Vanberkel (King, Duden), 3:27; 3, AC, Phillip Zens (Brendan Livermont, Ian Ahlberg), 2:59.

Second Period: 4, SC, Vanberkel (Isaac Baart), 15:26; 5, SC, Baart (Duden, King), 5:41; 6, SC, Vanberkel (King, Duden), 3:53.

Third Period: 7, SC, Duden (Vanberkel), 9:17; 8, AC, Jacob Grau (Brady Huff, Mason Carrels), 4:21.

Shots on Goal: Sioux Center 21; Aberdeen Cougars 19.

Goalies: Sioux Center, Luke Myers (17 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Carson Hundstad (15 saves).