The Aberdeen Cougars had some pent up energy and they let it loose on the Watertown Lakers Sunday afternoon at the Odde Ice Center.

The Cougars racked up a season-high 61 shots on goal on the way to an 8-1 girls’ hockey victory.

After not being able to practice for the better part of a week and having one game postponed, the Cougars were ready to hit the ice in a big way.

“Sometimes a break is good, but that was a long break,” said Cougars coach Rob Weinmeister. “It seemed like I just kept texting the girls, no practice today, no practice today, so it was good to get out here.”

Aberdeen set the tone early on a goal by Madalyn Witte just over two minutes into the game.

After the Lakers tied the score, the Cougars found themselves trying to kill a Watertown power play. The puck came out to center ice where Aiden Raap outskated a defender and scored on a breakway.

“It was on a penalty kill. I just saw the puck and I’m like, oh this is a great opportunity. I have to get this one,” Raap said. “The goalie was just standing there, so I made her move. I backhanded it in and it was a surprising shot.”

Aberdeen had multiple short-handed chances during that two-minute Watertown power play.

“Our special teams have not been great this year, but I even said on that particular penalty kill we had a lot of breakaways on that,” Weinmeister said. “We were just beating them to the puck. That’s what it was.”

The Cougars ended the period with a 2-1 lead and outshot Watertown 17-4. Things only escalated from there.

Aberdeen poured it on in the second period with four goals and 23 more shots.

“Since we didn’t have much practice this week because of the weather, we wanted to come back,” Raap said. “After the first period it was kind of rough, so we just got our head into the game and we’re like, let’s put some shots on net.”

The Cougars definitely did that as Kailyn Poppen, Alyssa Roehrich, Rachel Siefken and Raap each found the back of the net in the second period, Poppen and Roehrich scoring just 14 seconds apart.

Roehrich and Ema Rehder added goals in the third period as Aberdeen finished the contest with goals by six different players.

“We put the puck in the back of the net,” Weinmeister said. “We have a lot of scorers that are able to do that, which helps. It spreads it around so you can’t focus on one girl.”

Aberdeen had 21 shots on goal in the final period as the Cougars kept getting stronger as the contest wore on.

“We haven’t been on the ice, especially with so much snow, we couldn’t get outside,” Raap said. “It felt so great just to see how fast we picked up pace and how fast we could pass the puck.”

Weinmeister figured it would take a few minutes of game action for the squad to get back into rhythm.

“We talked about it before the game even,” Weinmeister said of his message to the players. “‘We haven’t practiced since Monday, so we want to work hard and get some hustle and communicate, because our timing and everything is going to be off a little bit,’ and I thought it got better as the game went on.”

Poppen added two assists in the victory.

The Cougars are back on the ice, hosting Wahpeton-Breckenridge in a non-league contest at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Odde Ice Center.

“They took it to us last year up there, but we were missing a few girls because of illness, so it should be a real good game,” Weinmeister said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Watertown Lakers 1 0 0 – 1

Aberdeen Cougars 2 4 2 – 8

First Period: 1, AC, Madalynn Witte (Ema Rehder), 14:55; 2, W, Harper Hendricks, 13:17; 3, AC, Aiden Raap, 2:28.

Second Period: 3, AC, Kailyn Poppen (Morgan Jones, Reece Ermer), 13:56; 4, AC, Alyssa Roehrich, 13:42; 5, AC, Rachel Siefken (Sydney Hofer), 8:44; 6, AC, Raap (Poppen), 1:53.

Third Period: 7, AC, Roehrich (Poppen, Madeline Sandvig), 1:49; 8, AC, Ema Rehder (Raap), :36.

Shots on Goal: Watertown Lakers 11; Aberdeen Cougars 61.

Goalies: Watertown Lakers, Angelyn Birnell (55 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Chloe Vikander (10 saves).