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League News
Penguins now 9-0-0
Liam Andrews scored the shoot-out winner for the Colts and the East Hants Penguins won their 9th consecutive game and remain undefeated following Sunday play in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League:
Capstone Colts 4 Pictou 3
Andrews put his club up 3-1 with a goal 3:58 into the final period of regulation and then scored the game winner in a shoot-out as Capstone edged the Pictou County Scotians in Trenton Sunday night. The Scotians escaped the five-minute sudden death still tied despite taking a costly ‘too many men on the ice” 1:17 into sudden-death. The Colts fell behind 1-0 after the first period but then scored three straight to go ahead by a pair of goals after Andrews third period goal. In between Andrews, Finn Merritt who also recorded an assist and Cooper Puma on the power-play were scorers for the Colts. John Kay Martin gave the Scotians a 1-0 lead after the opening frame and then down 3-1, Jack Tompkins and Nate Supryka on the power-play scored for the Scotians to knot the game at 3-3. Supryka also added an assist for the Scotians. Both goaltenders were busy on the night as Conar Brace turned away 41 of 44 shots for the Colts and Brandon Connors 34 of 37 for the Scotians who now trail the 1st place Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs by six points in the race for first place in the Sid Rowe Division. The Scotians now 4-1-2 do hold two games in hand on the Bulldogs.
East Hants 6 Port Hawkesbury 2
The Penguins are now 9-0-0 on the season after they broke open a close 2-1 game with four consecutive goals in the game’s final nine minutes to defeat the Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates 6-2 Sunday afternoon in the Strait. The Pens did exactly the same in Sunday’s win as they did in Saturday’s win in Membertou with an explosion of goals in the third period. Sunday’s game was tied 1-1 at the Civic Centre in the Strait until Alex Field scored his first of two goals for the Pens on the power-play with 1:37 to play in the second period. Ryan Langlois for the Pens and Rory Wood for the Strait exchanged goals in the first period.
The Pens outshot the Strait 16-8 in the second period and 39-35 overall began the third period with a two-man advantage for 23 seconds and a power-play for 53 seconds. However, they left their magic for later as Cadyn Power on a break-away effort tied the game for Port Hawkesbury on the power-play just 2:21 into the third after Power was going in all alone until he was almost caught by Noah Comeau who ended up with a holding penalty. Power who played a strong game for the Pirates in a losing effort quickly took the puck after Comeau went to the box and scored his break-away goal. The Penguins who are the League’s only undefeated team took command in the final nine minutes. Field scored his second power-play goal of the game for the game winner as both teams after Power’s tying goal played a wide-open end to end fast paced style of game. Nate Powell had the only other true scoring opportunity for the Strait as he was in close before Will Shields made a nice sprawling pad save to prevent the Pirates from taking the lead. Following Field’s game winner, it only took the Pens 23 seconds to go ahead 4-2 as the Pens were controlling play and Hayden Tamm tipped a shot from the point. Port Hawkesbury then took a slashing penalty with 7:27 left in regulation and with 30 seconds left in the power-play, Logan Durno blasted a shot from the point and the game was 5-2. Durno finished the game’s scoring with another shot from the point.
South Shore 7 Eskasoni Jr. Eagles 3
The South Shore Lumberjacks after trailing 1-0 in Eskasoni at the end of the first period Sunday afternoon at the Dan K. Stevens Memorial Arena in Eskasoni, turned on the engines for the second period and scored five unanswered goals to go up 5-1 and from there record a 7-3 win. Eskasoni simply could not stay out of the penalty box in the second period Sunday afternoon as four of the Lumberjacks five goals were scored on the power-play in a span of 3:16. Those goals came from Joe Osborne, Daniel Kline, John Shubaly and Brandon Rideout with Evan Amirault adding the 5th Lumberjacks tally. Jacob Wolodka opened the game’s scoring in the first for the Jr. Eagles on the power-play, as Wolodka and Terrance Toney completed second period scoring to leave the Eagles trailing 5-2 after forty minutes.
In the first, Brandon Rideout of the Lumberjacks was in close and he attempted to shove the puck across the goal line but Andrew Burke who was eventually removed after the the Lumberjacks 6th goal, sprawled across and prevented Rideout from scoring. Keegan Greencorn in the South Shore nets was kept on his feet in the early stages as he stopped Jacob Wolodka on a clear-cut breakaway as Wolodka took a pass up the middle and streaked in alone. Wolodka would later score his goal as he let a shot go from the blue-line which Greencorn was simply not able to stop. Eskasoni did outshoot the Lumberjacks 18-17 in the first period and the Lumberjacks outshot the Jr. Eagles 16-11 in the second period.
In the second period, Daniel Kline got a partial break-away for the Lumberjacks as he was leaving the penalty box but despite taking a direct shot could not score. The Lumberjacks went up 3-1 on a beautiful pass from Kyler MacIntyre to Daniel Kline. Brandon Rideout added the fourth Lumberjacks goal on a solid point shot which just trickled past Burke. Terrance Toney brought the Eagles deficit back to within 3 goals on a nice heads-up 2 on 1 play. Josh Novak closed that gap to a pair of goals when he scored 3:26 into the third. It was as far as the Eagles could close the gap as only 23 seconds later, Owen Cleary made it 6-3 Lumberjacks and Angus Berry tallied of the South Shore to make the final 7-3 with under five minutes to play.
Antigonish 8 Membertou 3
The Jr. Bulldogs took no mercy on the Membertou Jr. Miners, coming off a third period collapse against the East Hants Penguins at home Saturday evening, defeating the Jr. Miners 8-3 in Antigonish Sunday night. Landon Clarke put the Jr. Miners up 1-0 51 seconds into the game but Kellen Fuller and Will McKinnon scored the give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead after twenty minutes. Both teams started playing good end to end hockey and with the exception of Clarke’s goal. A good heads-up defensive play by Brodie MacDonald on the Bulldogs defines prevented Mitchell MacDonald of the Jr. Miners from getting past him as just as he was about to make his move, the Bulldogs MacDonald watched the puck and kicked it away preventing the Jr. Miners defence from advancing any further. Shortly after Landon Clarke missed making it 2-0 Jr. Miners. Following Fuller’s goal for the Bulldogs to tie it, a penalty was about to be assessed to the Jr. Miners when Will MacKinnon on a pass from Brodie MacPherson with 3:09 left in the opening period gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 leading entering the second period when they began the opening 1:06 of the second on the power-play. In the second, prior to the Bulldogs going on their five-goal run, Will MacKinnon with Brodie MacPherson drove directly to the Jr. Miners net but the Miners goalie was ready and made a critical save. Zachary Lorette made it 3-1 Bulldogs after net minder Adam Tkacz made a sensational pass to the tip of the Jr. Miners blue line where Owen Forsythe picked it up and made a great pass over to Lorette who shot from the left face-off circle. Brodie MacPherson then made it 4-1 Antigonish with a shot that wound up in the air and dropping behind the Jr. Miners net and rolling into the net. 1:44 later, the Bulldogs Tully Grant took an exceptional pass from Zachary Lorette and put the Bulldogs up 5-1 after forty minutes. The second period was totally dominated by the Bulldogs.
In the third, the Bulldogs added two more goals on bang-bang plays 15 seconds apart as Luc Samson and Matthew Bercovici score to give Antigonish a 7-1 lead. Landon Clark scored his 2nd of the game for the Jr. Miners before Max Baldwin made it 8-2 Antigonish. Hudson Clarke scored the game’s final goal for the Jr. Miners making it an 8-3 final in favour of the Bulldogs. Antigonish improved to 8-1-0 while the Jr. Miners are now 3-6-0 after nine games.