Victory just wasn’t in the cards for the Menace Friday night.
Milton held the lead in all three periods before being eclipsed 5-4 by the host Burlington Cougars – dropping them to 30-12-0-3.
Carter Bickle faced his busiest outing since joining the Menace in mid-December. He turned back 41 shots in the narrow defeat, which snapped a three-game win streak for Milton.
Cole Semeniuk tallied twice for the Menace, while Andrew Giljanovic gave Milton its final lead 8:29 into the third. Burlington erased that 17 seconds later before sinking the game winner about a minute after that.
Rounding out the scoring for the Menace was Ivan Fabjan.
Milton continues a four-game road trip tonight against the Toronto Patriots.
The Menace are back at Memorial Arena Sunday, Feb. 9 for a rare 1 p.m. start against the Patriots. It kicks off the first of two three-game home stands this month.