GrayJay Sports
League News
Pens improve to 7-0-0
Sackville, Antigonish, the Capstone Colts and the East Hants Bitar’s Risorante’ Penguins were all winners Friday night in a heavy slate of Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Play. The following is a complete rundown of action:
Sackville 5 Pictou 3
In a rare Friday night home game for the Sackville Blazers, the Blazers dealt the Pictou County Scotians a 5-3 setback and it was the Scotians first loss in regulation play in the League to date this season as they saw their record dip to 3-1-1. The Blazers meanwhile recorded their sixth win in eight games and stayed within two points of the first place East Hants Penguins in the Fox Division. Tyler Curnew who scored the game’s opening goal for Sackville on the power-play and later added two assists had the Blazers in front 1-0 less than 3 minutes after the opening face-off. Ryland Skerry made it 2-0 Blazers before Matt Carson brought the Scotians back to within a goal as the first period concluded.
The Scotians tied the game 2-2 in the second on a marker from Keagan Dalton but Will Meek’s goal with less than a minute to play in the second made it 3-2 Blazers. Meek also added an assist. The County Scotians dug themselves somewhat of a hole when they allowed Dawson LaPlante to score short-handed in the third and fall behind 4-2. Adam Maillet who also recorded an assist, scored to put the Blazers up 5-2 before Jack Tompkins of the Scotians scored the game’s final goal.
Ryan Frizzle picked up a pair of assist for the Scotians and Xavier Rivard also recorded a pair of assists for the Blazers. Sackville outshot Pictou 45-38.
East Hants 8 Brookfield 5
It was a wild night of offence in Lantz as the East Hants Penguins won their seventh consecutive game to begin the 24-25 Nova Scotia Junior Season 8-5 over the Brookfield Elks. The Pens scored six unanswered goals beginning in the second period and continuing through until there was 6:08 played in the third. Until that point the Elks were leading 2-1 after the first on goals from Sam Rogers and William Stewart while Alex Field had scored for the Pens. The six goal barrage began when the Pens went up 3-2 in a span of 18 seconds on goals from Rylan McQuaid and Logan Durno. In the final 7:01 of the second, Ethan Hines, Chris Brill and Chris Caissie to put the Pens up 6-2. Caissie’s goal in the second came via the short-handed effort and then he opened the third with a power-play goal to put the Pens up 7-2. However before you could blink, the Elks put themselves back in the game when they scored three straight from Sam Rogers, Owen Wood and Aiden Gloade to find themselves trailing by two goals at 7-5. Chris Caissie then scored his third of the game with one second showing on the clock to win it 8-5. Jake O’Connor and Hayden Tamm both recorded a pair of assists for the Pens who outshot the Elks 39-35. With the loss, the Elks fell to 2-4-1.
Capstone Colts 6 Eskasoni Jr. Eagles 1
The Colts scored three times in the opening two periods to take a 3-0 lead and then added three more in the third to sideline the Jr. Eagles 6-1. Finn Merritt, Benjamin Veinot and Jack Dulong all scored once while each added an assist with Jacob Troini, Trainer McCulloch and Nick Xidos with three seconds left in regulation scored the other Colt goals at C.F.B. Shearwater. Matthew LeBlanc was the lone marksman for Eskasoni who were outshot 43-20 by the Colts who improved to 4-2-0 while the Eagles fell back to 3-4-0.
Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs 6 Valley Maple Leafs 1
The two-time defending Atlantic Champions had little difficulty with the Maple Leafs at the John Paris Jr. Rink in Windsor. The Bulldogs had a 3-0 lead after twenty minutes when Tully Grant scored after the Leafs left him unprotected to put the puck into a wide-open net after Jayden Croft gave up a rebound. Brodie MacPherson who played a dominant game for the Bulldogs then scored back to back goals to make it 3-0.
In the second, the Bulldogs added two more, one of them via a short-handed effort when Luc Sampson picked up a loose puck near centre ice and broke through the Leafs defence to go in alone and beat Croft. Daniel Chaisson who also recorded a pair of assists made it 5-0 Bulldogs before the second intermission began. In the third, Will MacKinnon who also recorded a pair of assists scored to make it 6-0 before Nick Goodwin tallied for the Leafs on a nice 2 on 1 play with just over five minutes remaining. The Bulldogs outshot the Leafs 33-27 including 17-7 in the third period. This was despite allowing the Bulldogs two goals in the second, the Leafs outshot the Bulldogs 20-16.