One night after exploding for nine goals, the Aberdeen Cougars found the offense much tougher to come by Saturday night at the Odde Ice Center.

The Cougars managed just one goal in a 4-1 setback to the Sioux Falls East Flyers in boys’ hockey action.

“I figured it was going to be a battle,” said Aberdeen coach Dana Myhre. “I thought we played hard and we played with them. We were kind of hanging on for a lot of that.”

The Flyers spent a majority of the evening in front of the Aberdeen goal where they racked up 31 shots on goal.

“We just need more offensive zone time,” said Aberdeen’s Paxton Dallmann. “They were in our defensive zone almost the whole entire game.”

Dallmann produced the Cougars’ lone goal in the third period to slice the deficit to 3-1.

“We were on the power play. I was just sitting in front of the net,” Dallmann said. “They were hacking at me the whole time. I was moving around, but came in front of the net and buried.”

However, Aberdeen couldn’t muster enough offense to keep up with the Flyers, who won the majority of the races to loose pucks.

“We were definitely getting tired there,” Myhre said. “We kind of shortened the bench up, keeping the top two lines out there for the most part.”

While Aberdeen wasn’t able to sustain the energy and momentum it had in a win over Mitchell on Friday night, the Cougars proved they can play with one of the state’s elite teams in the Flyers.

“I think we were a little flatter than we were (Friday) night and that didn’t help,” Myhre said, “but we can definitely play with them.”

The Cougars were able to stay in the game thanks to the play of goalie Andrew Weisenburger, who stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced.

“Going into the season, I’m used to a decent amount of shots, about 30-40 shots a game,” Weisenburger said, “and then there’s some games where I get 10-15 shots.”

The sophomore was definitely busy trying to prevent the Flyers from scoring.

“He was pretty outstanding tonight,” Dallmann said, “for how many shots he had and what he let in.”

Interestingly, Weisenburger said he doesn’t study much film, especially when it comes to opposing goaltenders.

“I actually do not watch any film. I don’t watch anything,” Weisenburger said. “I don’t like watching other goalies, because if I keep watching them, I’ll just watch their habits and then I’ll get those habits.”

The Cougars host Huron at 3 this afternoon for their third game in three days at the Odde Ice Center.

While the busy schedule can be physically demanding, Weisenburger said it’s more mentally taxing for goalies.

“It’s definitely more mental. Before the game you’re not chatting up with your friends,” Weisenburger said. “Usually, I’m always up doing my own thing, before everybody goes to warm up or anything. It’s basically a whole mental game for goalies.”

The Cougars have three games remaining before the state tournament: a final home game today, and then road games against Watertown and Brandon Valley.

“We need to win all three of them,” Myhre said of the potential of moving up in seeding. “We’d like to get above the eighth seed. We want at least a seventh seed.”

Sioux Falls East Flyers 0 2 2 – 4

Aberdeen Cougars 0 0 1 – 1

First Period: no scoring.

Second Period: 1, SF, Owen Sechser (Beckett Rothrock), 13:44; 2, SF, Cole Houser (Rothrock, Jaxson Roesler), 4:31.

Third Period: 3, SF, Sechser (Ryan Fenton), 11:11; 4, AC, Paxton Dallmann (Brady Oswald, Derek Holland), 3:50; 5, SF, Rothrock (Fenton), 3:01.

Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls East Flyers 31; Aberdeen Cougars 18.

Goalies: Sioux Falls East Flyers, Austin Cargin (17 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Andrew Weisenburger (27 saves).