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League News
Howie 2 goals in Lumberjacks 4-1 win
The South Shore Lumberjacks continue to roll like Heavy Lumber as they recorded their 10th win in their past 11 games at home in Bridgewater Saturday evening, 4-1 over the first place East Hants Penguins. The game featured 4 of the top 6 point getters in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League as Alec Howie scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season, his second coming with one second left in regulation. Howie now has 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points and he moved into a tie with team-mate Brennan Coleman, 7 points behind the Pictou County Scotians Nate Supryka who has 14 goals and 22 assists for 36 points.
The Lumberjacks received outstanding goaltending from Keegan Greencorn who stopped 33 of th 34 shots he faced as the Penguins outshot the Lumberjacks 34-28. Alec Howie’s first goal was the only goal of the game entering the third period before Nolan Greenlaw put the South Shore up 2-0 before Joe Osborne made it 3-0, 5:53 into the third period. The final two goals of the game were the Penguins Jayson Hanson who spoiled Greencorn’s shut-out bid with 1:52 to play and Howie’s empty-net goal. With the win, the Lumberjacks stayed with four points of the Penguins in the race for first place in the Fred Fox Division. These two clubs have two games remaining between them in the regular season. One will be this Friday in Lantz at 7:30 and the fourth Feb 17 in Bridgewater during the second to last weekend of play prior to the playoffs. Elsewhere Saturday night —
Membertou 9 Port Hawkesbury 2
The Strait Pirates are likely still wondering what hit them when they ventured into Membertou Saturday night as the Jr. Miners were ready to go and they never looked back crushing the Strait Pirates 9-2. The Jr. Miners took period leads of 2-0 and 7-0 with Nathaniel Fuller scoring three times and adding an assist while assisting his club in taking over sole position of second place once again in the Sid Rowe Division with a 15-8-1 record for 31 points. Adding single goals for the Jr. Miners were Tyson LeFrense, Alec Campbell, Tyler Cormier, Drew Baldwin, Tye Clarke and Alexander Chenhall. Cadyn Power replied twice for the Strait. The Jr. Miners outshot the Strait 39-27 with the Strait changing up goalies at the 25:50 mark of the game as Issac Sparrow was taken out after allowing 5 goals on 17 shots. He was replaced by Brandon Connors for the final 34:10 who allowed 4 goals on 22 shots.
Valley Maple Leafs 4 Brookfield Elks 3
Unlike Friday night at home when the Valley Maple Leafs lost in Overtime, the Leafs did get one win in their 2nd game of the weekend which also went into overtime, this one 4-3 in Brookfield. The Leafs almost did not make it to the overtime as they needed a goal from Connor Deluney with 3 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 3-3. Deluney’s goal was a power-play marker. Jacob Gerhardt’s goal was the overtime winner for the Leafs as he required only 28 seconds in the five-minute sudden death to secure the victory for the Leafs who were outshot 42-32 by the Elks. Jayden Croft had an exceptional afternoon in nets for the Leafs stopping 39 of 42 shots while Thomas Gariepy turned away 28 of 32 shots for the Elks. Other Valley goal scorers were Reese Smith and Nick Oickle. For the Elks, Calem McAndrew scored a pair of power-play goals and Daniel MacKenzie also tallied. The Elks with their point in the overtime loss stayed a point ahead of the Leafs as the clubs battle to stay out of last place in the Fred Fox Division.