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Six-Round shootout in Windsor
A shoot-out that went six rounds and a team which led 6-2 before hanging on for a 6-5 win while the East Hants Penguins won their 12th consecutive game were the high lites of Friday evening action in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League.
Valley Maple Leafs 4 Sackville Blazers 3 (Shoot-out)
The Valley Maple Leafs with the exception of 3 undisciplined penalties played a more than solid 65 minutes of hockey before finally defeating the Sackville Blazers 4-3 in a shoot-out that took six rounds in Windsor Friday night. The Leafs got off to a tremendous start as Nick Goodwin stole the puck from Will Meek at the Leafs blue-line and went in on a breakaway to put the Leafs up 1-0. If one break-away goal wasn’t enough, Willson Davison caught the Blazers napping and stale the puck and went in on another break-away to give the Leafs a 2-0 lead after the opening period.
In the second, Blazers defenseman Matt Pluscauskas who played perhaps the best game for the Blazers took a wrist shot from the blue-line which just got by Leafs goaltender Graydon Mole to the short right-side and the Blazers trailed 2-1. However, the Blazers were caught napping for a third time and Aidan MacLeod went in on a break-away with under five minutes to play and gave the Leafs a two-goal advantage once again. The 3-1 lead only lasted 1:36 as Lawson Cook scored for Sackville and the Blazers went to the dressing room down 3-2 after forty minutes.
In the third, the Blazers Will Meek made up for his costly mistake earlier in the first and scored a beautiful goal streaking down into the Leafs right-face-off circle and let a wrist shot go high over Graydon Mole’s shoulder to tie the game at 3-3. The Leafs played a solid tight-checking game and frustrated the Blazers different times even though the Blazers did outshoot the Leafs 55-43. The Leafs only down time was the latter part of the second period when it appeared the Blazers might take control but solid goaltending by Mole prevented that from happening.
The Leafs Blake Manders actually had the fourth break-away for his team in the third period but he seemingly got too excited and ended up shooting the puck high over the Sackville net.
The teams did allow each other very much space, if any in the sudden-death overtime. Blazer defensman Matt Pluscauskas took a hooking penalty with 8 seconds left in the sudden-death overtime but despite taking a 30 second time-out, it did not leave the Leafs a whole lot of time to set something up.
The shoot-out then started and shot after shot was easily handled, or in at least one case mis-handled by the shooter and before you knew it 11 shots had been taken and not a single goal had been scored. Justin Banks who took a number of face-offs for the Leafs throughout the evening and won his fair share was the 12th shooter of overtime and he went in and delivered a shot over the shoulder of the Sackville goalie and the Leafs had their second consecutive win. The Blazers meanwhile after having won seven straight have only garnered one of a possible four points in their past two games as they head to face two-time defending Atlantic Junior Champion and three-time provincial champion the Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs on Sunday in Antigonish. The Leafs meanwhile will be looking for their third consecutive win as they travel to Bridgewater to play the Lumberjacks on Sunday. The Leafs remain on the road next weekend as they play in Port Hawkesbury and Membertou Friday and Saturday night.
Capstone Colts 6 Brookfield Elks 5
Despite a furious rally in the late stages of the third period after they fell behind the Colts 6-2, Brookfield had to settle for their seventh consecutive loss at C.F.B. Shearwater, 6-5 to the Colts. The Colts took a 2-1 lead after one period on goals from Nik Xidos and Xavier Coggins before Cale McClellan scored the first of his three for the Elks who fell to 2-8-1. The Colts meanwhile improved to 7-4-0 for 14 points and only three back of second place Sackville.
In the second, Cooper Puma scored a pair goals for the Colts including one on the power play while Owen Wood tallied for the Elks and the Colts led 4-2 after forty minutes.
In the third period, after the Colts went up 6-2 on goals from Jacob Trioni-Willis and Liam Andrews, they began to fade and had a heckuva scare put in them as Cale McClellan scored twice, his second coming with 1:36 remaining. After McClellan made it 6-4, Jack Piper tallied 13 seconds later and it was 6-5 Colts with 1:23 left in regulation. The Elks could not come up with the tying goal and as a result lost their seventh in a row. Luke Hawrylak, Connor Stewart and Nick Morin all added a pair of assists for the Colts while Jackson Spraggon had a pair of helpers for the Elks who were outshot 39-30 by the Colts. The Elks are back in action Saturday afternoon at 4:00 in Brookfield as they play the 4-4-2 Pictou County Scotians. The Colts are now off until next Friday night Nov 8th when they will host the League Leading East Hants Penguins at C.F.B. Shearwater.
East Hants 4 South Shore 0
The East Hants Penguins improved to 12-0-0 Friday night at home as they blanked the South Shore Lumberjacks 4-0 in Lantz. Logan Durno was a dominating force for the Pens as he scored three times including a pair of power-play goals, giving him 10 on the season to take over the league-lead in goals scored. Durno’s first goal came in the first period and his last two came in the second. Chris Caissie added the other Penguins goal in the second. There were no goals scored in the third to make the final 4-0. Fintan Boudreau recorded his third shut-out of the season for the Penguins while Jacob Sanford recorded three assists and Ryan Langlois two to help out the Pens who saw their record increase to 12-0-0. The Pens have now scored a league-leading 69 goals in 12 games for an average of 5.75 goals a game. They are second in defence to Antigonish having allowed 29 goals in 12 games or 2.41 a game. The Pens outshot the Lumberjacks 33-24.