GrayJay Sports
League News
Blazers and Scotians both down 3-0
Two teams are now on the brink of elimination in the opening round of the 23-24 NSJHL Playoffs as a result of losses Monday night. The following is a recap:
Capstone Colts 5 Sackville Blazers 3
Before a very well attended Blazers home playoff opener, they were absolutely no match for the Colts Monday evening who skated exceptionally hard for 60 minutes and moved the puck almost at will in blanking the Blazers 5-0 to take a 3-0 lead in their Best-of-Seven Fred Fox Divisional Semi-Final. The Colts can advance to the Division Finals with another win in Sackville Wednesday night. As for Monday night’s game, the Blazers started briskly with Lawson Cook and Stephen Purdy both missing in close in the opening minute of play. The Blazers were stung twice when they had two goals disallowed on penalty calls, one for head contact and another on goaltender interference. Both penalties involved Duggan Gauthier who ended up being assessed 34 of the 64 penalty minutes handed out during he game as he received 2 minors, 2 misconducts and a game misconduct.
Xavier Coggins opened the game’s scoring for the Colts as he deflected a shot from Brady Stone, who had shot from the blue line. The Colts then went up 2-0 as sharp shooter Liam Andrews kept up his scoring, going in on a break-away with the Colts short-handed to make it 2-0.
Degen Noble missed an opportunity to score for the Blazers when he went in close but simply could not get it past Conor Brace in the Colts net.
The second period was wide-open as the Colts dominated play while going up 4-0. Vincent Radford whose team was eliminated from the Major Midget Triple AAA Playoffs Sunday and was called up to play for the Colts, whizzed a shot past Connor Blackwood from the right face-off circle to make it 3-0. Radford was up as the Colts were missing their second leading scorer Cooper Puma due to exams. Trainer McCulloch then made it 4-0 on a beautiful rush around the back of the net and to come out marginally in front to put a shot past Blackwood into the high left hand corner. Shortly after the Blazers had their second goal of the game disallowed due to goalie interference and it was at this time that Gauthier received 22 of his 34 minutes in penalties with 8:05 to play in the middle period. The Colts outshot the Blazers 22-11 in the second and 42-34 overall on the game. Nik Xidos scored the fifth Colts goal. It marked the third consecutive time in this series in which the Colts have scored five times and have now outscored Sackville 15-6 over the three games.
Antigonish 6 Pictou 0
Numerous people thought the Scotians-Bulldogs could turn into quite a series based on the Scotians play through the latter half of the season but they have been thwarted time and time again as they were shut-out for a second consecutive night in Antigonish Monday evening, this time 6-0 after losing 8-0 in Pictou Sunday evening. The Bulldogs have now outscored the Scotians 19-3 in the opening three games and will have a chance at a sweep when the two teams meet again Thursday night in Trenton at 6:30 p.m. Adam Tkacz recorded his sixth shut-out of the season stopping all 28 Pictou Shots. Zachary Lorette scored a pair of goals for the Jr. Bulldogs while singles were recorded by Logan McGrath, Venel Campbell, Zachary Stewart and Tully Grant.
Tuesday night only one playoff series is scheduled to resume and this one will see the Membertou Jr. Miners coming off a 5-4 win over the Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates Saturday night, attempt to go up two games in their series when they clash in the Strait at 7:30 p.m.