GrayJay Sports
League News
Leafs battle Sackville hard!
The Blazers won for the fifth time in their last six games, this one at the John Paris Jr. Rink in Windsor Friday evening nosing out the Valley Maple Leafs 4-3. Lawson Cook scored his first of the year for the visitors in the opening period before Nick Goodwin with tremendous hustle broke through the Sackville defence and tied the game with 2:05 to play in the first period for the Leafs. Degen Noble then scored his fourth of the season on the power play to put the Blazers up 2-1 but the lead only lasted 1:13 on a play you see very little of. The play involved Nick Goodwin of the Leafs who let a shot go from inside the Blazers blue line and appeared at first to have rung off the post. Play continued for another 4-6 seconds before the four officials met near the Sackville net in a circle and after a brief discussion, Goodwin was credited with his second of the game as the officials ruled the puck had not hit the goalpost but the bar situated in the back of the net. The goal came with 14:27 remaining in the second and it stayed that way until Stephen Purdy connected for his fifth of the season to put Sackville ahead 3-2 after forty minutes. As for Goodwin, he saw a lot of ice-time and the Leafs went to him a great deal knowing that he will deliver for them the majority of the time. Jacob Gerhardt and Nick Vidito also played exceptional games for the Leafs. The Blazers received extra strong performances from Will Meek. Justin Hardie and and Duggan Gauthier who always seemed to be at the Leafs blue-line keeping the puck in the offensive zone for the Penguins. Before the third period was two minutes old, Will Meek put the Blazers up 4-2 before Braden Aucoin came back with one for the Leafs 22 seconds later to make the score 4-3. That is the way the game stayed. The Leafs outshot the Blazers 13-11 in the third and following a time-out called at 1:48, seemed ready to even things up but horrors upon horrors, Matthew LeBlanc of the Leafs then picked up a major and a game misconduct taking the man advantage away from the Leafs and effectively costing the Leafs the game. After Aucoin had brought the Leafs back to within one, they almost tied it on a couple of occasions including once when Tarran Baillie was alone directly in front of Blazers goalie Ben Etsell when a pass was made to him with Etsell down and out but Baillie just missed the puck as it went bouncing over his stick instead of being put directly into the net. The Leafs now fall to 3-7-0 and will return to action Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. in Trenton when they go up against the Pictou County Scotians.
Port Hawkesbury 4 Pictou County Scotians 1
At the Civic Centre in Port Hawkesbury, the Strait Pirates moved to 10-5-0 on the season with a hard fought 4-1 win over the Pictou County Scotians who fell to 9-6-0, leaving the Scotians two points back in the race for second place in the Sid Rowe Division. Callum McClellan scored twice and added a pair of assists for the Strait including his first goal with 2:04 remaining in the opening period to put the Strait up 1-0 after twenty minutes. Danny Gillis scored twice for the Pirates, one in the second and another in the third for the Strait Pirates. MacLellan’s second goal coming into an empty net with three seconds to play in regulation to make the final 4-1. Brandon Connors faced a heavy workload for the Scotians turning away 49 of 52 shots with the other being the empty netter while Alejando Martinez turned away 33 of 34 shots for the Strait. Zach Biniotto collected a pair of assists for the Pirates who are now off until Friday Nov 10 when they host the Maple Leafs at 7:30 at the Civic Centre. Matt Carson scored the lone Scotians goal. Pictou will be back in action Sunday night at home when they play host to the Valley Maple Leafs at 6:00 p.m. in Trenton.
Capstone Colts 10 Membertou Jr. Miners 3
If fans in Cole Harbour-Shearwater wanted to see offence from their hometown club, they were certainly rewarded Friday evening at the C.F.B. Shearwater arena as the Colts scored four times in the first period, twice in the second and four more times in third on their way to a 10-3 thumping of the Membertou Jr. Miners. It completed the home and home series between the Colts and Miners this season with the Colts winning both and outscoring the Jr. Miners in both games by a count of 17-7. Friday’s game saw the Colts win their 10th of the season against one regulation loss and two sudden-death losses for 22 points and a tie for first place with the 11-3-0 East Hants Penguins. Owen McDermid and Jack Dulong scored three times and added an assist to pace the Colts scoring. Trainer McCulloch also scored and added a pair of assists as did Connor Stewart. Liam Andrews also scored a pair. Other single markers were tallied by Cole Good, Liam Andrews and Nick Morin. The Colts held period leads of 4-2 and 6-2 and outshot Membertou 43-26.