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League News
Bulldogs win Number 16
When the game first started Monday evening in Sackville, a clash between two of the top Junior Teams in the province did not appear as if it was going to be much of a game. The now 16-1-1 Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs jumped in front 2-0 early in the first period Murray on goals 26 seconds apart. Owen Juurlink put the Bulldogs up 1-0 on a shot from the point before Logan McGarth netted his fifth goal of the season by taking a pass from Andrew Murray, allowing McGrath to split the Sackville defence and deposit the Bulldogs 2nd goal before the game was three minutes old. The Bulldogs kept applying pressure. They held a commanding lead of 11-0 in shots and were not allowing the Blazers do to do anything until the mid-way point of the first period when Bulldogs Coach Donnie Grant had to ‘grimace' as the Blazers were killing a penalty but somehow managed a 2 on 0 with Jaden Hardie making a beautiful pass over to Adam Maillet on the Blazers second shot of the game and it was 2-1 Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs came right back as Matthew Bercovici stole the puck from a Blazer defender and let a sharp wrist shot go to put Antigonish back up by two goals.
Sackville then took another penalty and looked somewhat anemic during the penalty kill, taking no shots. When the penalty expired, Jaden Hardie who played probably the strongest game of the evening for the hometown fans found some room down the left-hand side and let a wrist shot go but it was to no avail. Degen Noble then rang a shot off the post as he tried to score the Blazers second goal. The Score almost ended 4-1 after the first but Owen Flemming and Sam Grant were unable to put puck into essentially a wide open Blazer net with Ben Etsell down on the ice, but they somehow could not lift the puck over Etsell and it was 3-1 after twenty minutes. The Bulldogs outshot the Blazers 20-8 in the opening period.
The second period began with Sam Grant of the Bulldogs missing in close on an Etsell stick save but the Bulldogs kept pressing hard and were all over the Blazers. Ben Etsell stopped an initial shot by Tully Grant but Sam Grant was there to deposit home the rebound 1:57 into the second and it was 4-1 Jr. Bulldogs. The Bulldogs kept applying pressure holding a commanding 11-3 shots advantage in the second period for the opening 8-9 minutes. Will Normeandau and Owen Forsythe teamed up on a 2 on none with Normeandeau however shooting the puck over the net. The Bulldogs held a three-goal lead entering the third. This is when things changed somewhat as the Blazers were a different team. Logan Mitchell tipped a shot in close only 58 seconds into the third period and the Blazers trailed by only a pair. Antigonish attempted to go back up by three but Bercovici after stepping around the Blazers defence and going in close was denied by Etsell in the Blazers net. With 4:45 having elapsed in the third and the Bulldogs still leading 4-2, they had four chances to gain control of the puck Stephen Purdy with a superb pass over to Lawson Cook pulled the Blazers to within a single goal. Duggan Gauthier had another sensational scoring chance for the Blazers but was literally robbed by Ryan MacDonald in the Bulldog nets. With approximately seven minutes to play, Logan McGrath was stationed perfectly for the Bulldogs and put it into a wide-open net to score the game’s final goal. MacDonald then made another sensational save off Jaden Hardie to maintain the lead at two goals. The Bulldogs outshot the Blazers 54-39 over the sixty minutes as they saw their impressive record increase to 16-1-1 compared to Sackville’s 8-5-3. The Blazers are two points up on the fourth place South Shore Lumberjacks and will now head to Cape Breton this weekend on a three-game road trip. Antigonish will return to Metro Friday evening for a game with the Fox Division First Place Capstone Colts at C.F.B. Shearwater at 7:30 p.m.