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League News
Championship Series deadlocked 2-2
It has now boiled down to a Best-of-Three NSJHL Championship Series following the Antigonish Bulldogs 5-4 win Saturday afternoon over the South Shore Lumberjacks at the Lunenburg County Sport and Lifestyle Centre in Bridgewater. The series is now essentially back to square one as the Bulldogs win tied the Best-of-Seven Final at 2-2. Antigonish jumped out in front 5-1 in Saturday’s game and survived a three-goal rally by the Lumberjacks.
Owen Forsythe and Logan McGrath scored 1:55 apart in the opening period to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead after twenty minutes. In the second, special teams played a key role as Jack Hayne scored short-handed for Antigonish to put them up 3-0 only to see Brennan Coleman reply with a power-play goal 20 seconds later for the Lumberjacks making the score 3-1 Antigonish. The Bulldogs however were not finished as Venel Campbell who continues to have an outstanding series for the Bulldogs scored to make it 4-1 followed by the eventual game winner from Daniel Chaisson to put Antigonish up 5-1.
This is where it became a little trick for the Bulldogs as it was the last goal they would score while holding back a furious three-goal rally by the Lumberjacks. John Shubaly’s power-play goal with a 2:53 to go in the second left Antigonish in front 5-2 after forty minutes.
In the third, Daniel LeBlanc’s power-play goal 1:28 into the final period of regulation cut the Lumberjacks deficit to now only a pair of goals. Owen Osborne then scored for the South Shore and the Bulldogs lead was down to a goal. However, that was as close as the Lumberjacks would get as they could not get the equalizer and now head back to Antigonish for Game five Friday April 12 at 7:30 p.m. Alec Howie had a stand-out evening for the Lumberjacks assisting on three of the four South Shore goals. The Lumberjacks outshot the Bulldogs 34-28.