The Aberdeen Cougars made a fierce comeback effort, but came up short in a 4-3 boys’ hockey loss to the Watertown Lakers at the Odde Ice Center on Friday night.

The comeback came after the Cougars trailed 4-1 entering the third period as Drake Witte and Austin Dabney each scored goals in the final period.

Cougars coach Jeremey Backous noted that the team played with more urgency in the final period, something he felt the team needs to do more consistently.

“It was just playing with more urgency,” Backous said of the final period. “It’s just something we need to have for the entire game, not until the last 10 minutes of the game when we’re down by two goals. That’s something we need to learn to play with an entire game, and I think if we do it’s probably a different outcome.”

Backous said that communication will help the team on the ice moving forward, especially on the power play.

“I don’t know what it’s been with our special teams this year,” Backous said. “We just have not been very sharp. I think on that first one we actually gave up a short-handed goal, and it’s just communication. We’ve been talking with the boys and the team about talking out there, and it makes the game so much easier.”

Watertown’s first goal came on a short-handed goal by Thomas Foley, followed by the Lakers second goal by Hudson Hendricks. The Cougars got on the board with 27.4 seconds left in the first period when Aiden Posthumus found the back of the net.

Watertown entered the second period with a 2-1 advantage, and took control of the puck throughout the period, extending its lead to 4-1 with goals by Ryan Roby and Foley.

Backous noted that penalties hurt the Cougars.

“I think we had some more penalties we had to kill off,” Backous said. “When you’re having to kill off as many penalties as we did, it just takes you out of your offensive flow and rhythm. It just was not a good period for us.”

Although the final period belonged to the Cougars, the team was unable to get over the hump to tie the contest.

Backous said the team has to play cleaner as the regular season draws to a close.

“We just have to be sharper,” Backous said. “We had opportunities tonight for breaks (before) overskating pucks and just not making clean passes or handling pucks clean. When you do that, it disrupts your flow and it’s hard to attack with speed through the neutral zone when you’re not handling pucks clean.”

The Cougars will wrap up the regular season next weekend with three road contests, one at Mitchell and two at Sioux Falls.

Watertown Lakers 2 2 0 – 4

Aberdeen Cougars 1 0 2 – 3

First Period: 1, W, Thomas Foley, 13:25; 2, W, Hudson Hendricks (Jake Bramer), 2:18; 3, AC, Aiden Posthumus (Seth Malsom, Ethan Fergel), 27.4.

Second Period: 4, W, Ryan Roby, 16:00; 5, W, Foley (Mylan Evans), 2:20.

Third Period: 6, AC, Drake Witte, 12:32; 7, AC, Austin Dabney (Posthumus), 2:44.

Shots on Goal: Watertown Lakers 27; Aberdeen Cougars 24.

Goalies: Watertown Lakers, Caleb Schmaltz (21 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Sam Casper (23 saves).