League News
Bulldogs-Eagles - Game 1
The AA Munro Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs looking to make their second consecutive trip to the Atlantic Junior Hockey Championships to play for the Don Johnson Memorial Cup open up their Sid Rowe Divisional Final at home Sunday night in Antigonish against the Eskasoni Jr. Eagles. The two teams played six games during the 22-23 regular season with the Jr. Eagles winning twice in Antigonish by scores of 4-0 and 4-3 while Antigonish won the third game in Antigonish by a count of 72 and the other 3 in Eskasoni by scores of 11-2, 4-1 and 7-2 to outscore the Jr. Eagles 19-9 in the six games while holding a shots advantage of 224-151. The shots may have been a few more as they were not kept 100% accurately in the teams Oct 30th game in Eskasoni when the Jr. Bulldogs won 11-2. The Jr. Bulldogs finished the regular season at 26-3-1 for first place in the Rowe Division while Eskasoni who stayed neck and neck with the Bulldogs for first until the latter stages of the season finished at 21-8-1 for 43 points, 10 back of the Jr. Bulldogs. In the six games, Antigonish relied on their top sharp shooters all season to provide their scoring punch as Will Fitzsimmons scored 5 times and set up 3 others, Sam Grant connected 3 times and added can additional 4 helpers, while Will Mierau scored 4 times and 3 assists. Bradley Armstrong scored three times and added a pair of assists giving the Bulldogs 15 of their 19 goals in the six game regular season series. As for the Jr. Eagles, the League scoring champion for this year was held to 3 goals and a pair of assists while Marcellus Francis, the Leagues rookie of the year scored three times and added an assist and Jacob Denny scored twice and added two helpers for 8 of the Jr. Eagles 9 goals in the season series. The goaltending could also prove to be a factor as the Bulldogs Cody MacEachern squares off against Hunter Chenall in the Eagles net, both who played superbly on different occasions this season. Game time for Sunday’s game is 7:30 at the Antigonish Arena. Game 2 will be played in Eskasoni Wednesday March 22 at 7:30 with Game 3 in Antigonish Saturday March 25 at 7:30 and Game 4 back in Eskasoni Sunday March 26 at 7:30 p.m.