GrayJay Sports
League News
Elks fall below .500 in loss to Pens
Antigonish opens their lead to 6 over Jr. Eagles in Rowe and Colts and Pens remain 2 points apart….the following is a breakdown of results in Friday night’s action in the NSJHL.
East Hants 6 Brookfield 2
Blake Irvine and Ben Fraser exchanged goals in the opening period before the Pens outscored the Elks 3-1 in the second period to take command of the game. Bruen Fisher, Morgan Lake and Sean Freeman scored in the second to give the Pens a 4-2 lead after forty minutes. Ethan Price was the lone goal scorer for the Elks in the 2nd who fell to 10-11-3 in the loss. Sean Freeman with his second of the game short-handed and Bruen Fisher on the power-play rounded out the Pens scoring in the third. The Pens now 17-4-3 outshot the Elks 51-37.
Capstone Colts 6 Valley Maple Leafs 2
With the exception of approximately 6 minutes in the second period, the Maple Leafs struggled severely against the Colts who finished with a 56-15 shots advantage. To open the game Ben Lawrence with a costly giveaway almost provided the Colts with a 1-0 lead but an excellent scoring opportunity created by the giveaway 15 seconds into the contest saw Braden Cheney denied by Jayden Croft in the Leafs net. If it were not for Croft Friday evening, the Leafs would have found themselves in a far bigger hole as she turned away 55 of the 60 shots he faced. The Colts outshot the Leafs by margins of 14-3, 22-6 and 24-6 in the three periods. The Colts were hungry from the start as Cole Good missed from in close and Riley Henman missed on a breakaway after he took a nice heads-up pass from Matt Jessome. Camden Pellerine missed an opportunity for the Leafs in the opening period. The Colts first goal came off the stick of Cole Good who took a pass from Cooper Puma and went down the left side and slipped it past Croft for a 1-0 Colts lead. The Colts kept the Leafs boxed in their own end for the opening ten minutes of the first but then with the Leafs taking the game’s first penalty Brady MacLean and Dylan Schofield went in 2 on 1 short-handed for the Leafs but were denied only to see the Colts come directly back only to ring a shot off the goal post. Dylan Schofield of the Leafs missed an excellent opportunity after the Colts took their first penalty of the game. With under five minutes remaining in the opening period, Paul Goodwin took a crisp wrist shot from the Leafs blue line which appeared to block Croft from seeing it but the shot deflected off the butt end of the goalie’s tick and went high into the left hand corner of the net to make it 2-0 Colts. With 3 minutes left in the first, the Colts were buzzing all over the Leafs net and Croft came up with 3 exceptional saves including one while he was down before squeezing the puck between his legs. With 11 seconds to play in the first, Ben King let a shot go from the blue line which Ben King deflected and it was 3-0 Colts. If this wasn’t enough. the colts also missed another excellent chance in the final 3 seconds of the first.
In the opening six minutes of the middle period, the Leafs appeared as if they going to get back into the game as Carter Graves slipped a past to Robbie Dowell as Dowell swooped around the Colts net with the Colts goalie down and Dowell brough the Leafs to within a pair. Then only 50 seconds later, Dowell scored again for the Leafs to make it 3-2 Colts on a mad scramble for the puck directly in front of the Colts net. That however was all the scoring the Leafs would do as Trayner McCulloch made it 4-2 for the visitors ass he beat Croft on a rebound. The Colts then went up 5-2 after Cooper Puma took a pass from Tyler Puma from behind the net.
The third period began with Ben McCarthy starting a great rush for the Leafs down the Colts right side only to be denied. Croft then came up with 3 more dynamic saves. The visitors however then made a costly giveaway in front of their own net and Nick Oickle missed on a breakaway for the Leafs. The game’s final goal was scored when Brayden Hooper-Richard scored on the power-play. The Leafs will be hoping for a better start Sunday afternoon when they host the Liverpool Privateers at 12:30 at the Wests Hants Sports Complex. The Colts and Leafs finished their 6 game regular season schedule with the Colts winning all 6 while the Leafs went 0-5-1 while being outscored 24-8 in the six games.
Antigonish 4 Cumberland County 3
It was certainly not the type of game you would expect between a team that has won 21 of 25 starts in 22-23 and another which has lost 23 of 25 games. However, the Cumberland County Blues came into Antigonish Friday night and played an exceptionally tight hockey game with the Jr. Bulldogs before ultimately losing 4-3. The teams scored six of the game’s seven goals in the opening period with Aiden Fisher putting the Blues up 1-0 before the Jr. Bulldogs fired back with three consecutive goals, 2 from Zachary Lorette and another from Ben MacLellan. Callum Mccllelan then brought the Blues back to within a goal at 3-2 before Chris Keyes made it 4-2 Antigonish. Aidan McBurnie scored mid-way through the second period to bring the Blues back to within a goal but that was all the scoring for the duration of the game. Another different aspect to this game was that in the four previous games between the two clubs this year, the Jr. Bulldogs had outscored the Blues 39-8. The 21-3-1 Bulldogs and the 2-22-1 Blues play their game of the regular season on Feb 26, the last day of the regular season in Springhill at 7:30 p.m.