The Sioux Falls West Flyers scored five times Saturday night, but one goal was more important than the others at the Odde Ice Center.

The visitors found the back of the net with 16 seconds left in the second period to help fuel a 5-1 boys’ hockey victory over the Aberdeen Cougars on Greg Swanson Day.

The Cougars trailed just 2-0 and had battled the Flyers to near even terms, before the late goal sent the hosts to the locker room on a down note.

“I don’t know exactly what happened on that,” said Aberdeen coach Dana Myhre. “I thought we played it fairly well for the most part, maybe could have tied up that guy’s stick a little bit. He just got the tip of it and changed the angle.”

That goal also changed the mindset and momentum of the Cougars for the rest of the night.

“That can really lose the momentum throughout the whole team when they get a goal and you just don’t really have a chance to get it back right away,” said Aberdeen’s Paxton Dallmann.

Up until that point, Aberdeen had outshot the Flyers 18-12 and was right in the contest.

“I feel like that just kind of took us down and our momentum that we had,” said Aberdeen senior Austin Schmit.

From there, Sioux Falls took advantage of its new-found momentum and tacked on two more goals in the third period as the Cougars had a difficult time clearing the puck out of their zone.

Aberdeen got on the board in the final minute when Carter Vilhauer scored with 40 seconds remaining.

Goals have been difficult to come by for the Cougars, who finished with the same amount of shots as Sioux Falls, but had four less goals.

“We tied in shots today and we just couldn’t find a way to bury, I guess,” Schmit said. “We just need to work on that.”

Myhre said the Cougars needed to apply more pressure on the Sioux Falls goalie.

“If we were crashing the net a little more I think we could do a better job with that,” Myhre said. “He was giving up a lot of big rebounds and we just were never in the right spot. The puck just doesn’t seem to bounce our way much.”

Against the Flyers, the opportunities were there, but the goals were not.

“We just gotta move around the puck, keep it in our zone longer, and just bury,” Dallmann said.

Dallmann is back to full strength after missing five games earlier this season with a shoulder injury.

“It was pretty tough to watch my team go without me,” Dallmann said, “but I learned what we need to do better.”

The Cougars have a game at Mitchell this afternoon with huge playoff implications as the two teams are battling for position for a potential spot in the state tournament.

“We just need work as a team,” Schmit said, “and start scoring goals and get these wins, because they’re big.”

There was a tribute to Swanson before the game. Swanson, who passed away from cancer in 2023, was the team leader on the Cougars’ last state championship squad in 1992.

“He was actually captain of the team my freshman year,” Myhre said, “so I played with him his senior year. … He was heckuva guy and a heckuva leader for that team.”

It was announced before the contest that Swanson will be the first Cougars player to be inducted into the South Dakota Hockey Hall of Fame this spring.

“Well deserving of it,” Myhre said. “He was the epitome of what a captain should be.”

Sioux Falls West Flyers 2 1 2 – 5

Aberdeen Cougars 0 0 1 – 1

First Period: 1, SF, Carson Edwards (unassisted), 8:33; 2, SF, Jackson Henry (unassisted), 4:29.

Second Period: 3, SF, Jack Campbell (Jackson Breuer), :16.

Third Period: 4, SF, Campbell (unassisted), 15:30; 5, SF, Beckett Halde (Breuer), 9:32; 6, AC, Carter Vilhauer (Trayke Roehrich), :40.

Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls West Flyers 23; Aberdeen Cougars 23.

Goalies: Sioux Falls West Flyers, Lewis Jerke (22 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Andrew Weisenburger (18 saves).