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Playoffs Night 2 - WHAT A NIGHT!!
The Four Seasons are famous for their song “Oh What a Night - December 1963.” Similarly, the Four Seasons, Friday Feb 21st was “Oh What a Night in the second night of the NSJHL Playoffs. There was stunning upsets and a thrilling overtime. The following is a recap:
Sackville 6 Capstone Colts 3
The Blazers and Colts were deadlocked at 1-1 after forty minutes but the Blazers in the first upset of the night blew the barn door wide out open in the third with five goals to defeat the Colts 6-3. Despite finishing 10 points behind the Colts in the regular season, the Blazers were 3-2-0 against the Colts. Adam Maillet of the Blazers and Liam Andrews of the Colts had the teams tied 1-1 heading into the third period. Maillet also collected a pair of assists in the game. It was 2-2 as Will Meek and Finn Merritt scored 38 seconds apart before the third period was 2 minutes old. Zachary Jenkins and Cody Garcin’s power-play goal for the Colts then tied the game 3-3, but starting with only 4:20 left in regulation, the Blazers rifled home three consecutive goals to take a 6-3 lead off the sticks of Ryland Skerry, Logan Mitchell and Xavier Rivard as the Colts were stunned and fell behind the Blazers 1-0 in the Fox Divisional Semi-Final. Conar Blackwood was awesome in the Blazer nets stopping 43 of the 46 Colt shots he faced as the Colts outshot East Hants in a losing cause 46-37. The face-off for Game 2 takes place Monday evening in Sackville at 7:30 p.m.
South Shore 3 East Hants 2
In another stunning upset, the 26-4-0 East Hants Penguins despite outshooting the South Shore Lumberjacks 40-26 lost to the South Shore 3-2 in Lantz with Game 2 set for Bridgewater tonight at 7:00 p.m. Keegan Greencorn turned away 38 of 40 Penguin shots to pace the Lumberjacks to victory. Brandon Rideout on the power-play for the South Shore and Jayson Hanson for the Penguins scored in the first period and the Lumberjacks took a 2-1 lead after forty minutes on a goal from John Shubaly. Chris Caissie tied it for the Penguins 3:08 into the third period before Joe Osborne scored the game-winning goal for the Lumberjacks who finished 1-3-0 against East Hants in the regular season while being outscored 18-7 in the four games. The Penguins certainly do not want to start thinking about the 23-24 playoffs too soon but it was last year, the Pens were up 3-0 on the Lumberjacks before the South Shore stormed back to win four straight and the Divisional Semi-Final in 7 games.
Membertou 4 Pictou 3 (Sudden-Death Overtime)
Jarred Hicks with only 1:04 left in the first period, scored to give the Jr. Miners a 2-1 lead after the opening twenty minutes after Porter McNamara and Rylan Perry had scored to tie the game at 1-1. The teams failed to score in the second before the Scotians jumped in front 3-2 mid-way through the third period on goals from Lane Lochead and Keegan Macumber. Trey Sturge who also collected an assist tied the game at 3-3 for the Jr. Miners to send it to sudden-death OT and it was there that Drew Baldwin tallied to tie the Best-of-Seven Divisional Semi-Final at 1-1 heading into Game 3 Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. in Trenton. Pictou outshot Membertou 56-48 with both goaltenders playing exceptional games with Lucas Frasier stopping 53 of 56 shots for the Jr. Miners and Eli James 44 of 48 shots for the Scotians. Adam Hicks and Alex Chenhall helped the Jr. Miners offence with a pair of assists.
Antigonish 5 Port Hawkesbury 2
The three-time defending Provincial Champion Bulldogs had little difficulty with the Strait outshooting them 45-29 in their 5-2 win. Zachary Lorette and Brody MacPherson with the first of his three goals on the evening put the Jr. Bulldogs up 2-0 after the first. In the second, MacPherson on the power play and Daniel Chaisson on the power-play scored for the Bulldogs with Jesse Gillis and Ryland Hanrahan scoring between the two Bulldog goals to make the score 4-2 Bulldogs after two periods. MacPherson with his third of the night also on the power-play scored 1:08 into the third for the game’s final goal. Venel Campbell assisted on three Bulldog goals. Game 2 in this series goes Sunday night in Antigonish at 7:30 p.m.