The Sackville Blazers continued their winning weekend at home Saturday evening by doubling the Membertou Jr. Miners 6-3.  Degen Noble notched the game winning goal, his 11th of the season, 23 seconds into the third period for the Blazers.  The Blazers opened up a 2-1 lead after one on a power-play goal from Noah Healy and another from Daniel Surrette.  Nathan MacMillan scored for the Jr. Miners in between the two goals.  Nathaniel Fuller with the first of his 2 on the evening tied it up for the Jr. Miners at 2-2 with 6:52 having elapsed in the second but Mitchell Comeau’s goal 1:46 later gave the Blazers a lead they never looked back on.  Comeau also helped out with assists on 3 other Blazers goals.  Following Noble’s game winner, Jack Walsh made it  5-2 Blazers before Fuller scored his second of the game.  The final goal of the contest went to Brian Grandy who scored short-handed.  Membertou outshot the Blazers 41-33.  This concluded the season series between the Jr. Miners and Blazers as the Jr. Miners won the first game on their home ice 6-4 back in October.  Sackville going into their game Monday Nov 22 against the Capstone Colts hold a down a 10-3-1 mark for 21 points and first place in the Fred fox Division, 7 ahead of both East Hants and Liverpool.

The AA Munro Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs just keep on winning, their latest coming at home Friday evening Nov 19, 8-5 over the Cumberland County Blues.  The Jr. Bulldogs received two goals from the League’s Leading point getter this season Fearghus MacDonald as he scored two of the Bulldogs first three goals.  MacDonald now has 11 goals on the season.  Darren Waterman and Will Fitzsimmons scored the other first period goals while Burke Beed and Aidan McBurnie tallied for the Blues who trailed by two goals after the first 4-2 and 6-4 after two periods.  Ryan MacLellan and Connor Doherty put the Bulldogs up 6-2 before the second period was even five minutes old.  Doherty’s goal proved to be the game winner as the Blues Ezekiel Cormier and Jacob Estabrooks scored power-play goals for the Blues.  The Bulldogs recorded their 12th consecutive win and have yet to lose this season, took a 4 goal lead again with goals from Sam Mattie, his league leading 14th and Sam MacNeil who also recorded three assists.  Jayden Matheson added a short-handed marker for the Blues with 1:24 left in regulation.  The Jr. Bulldogs outshot the Blues 39-31.  They lead the league in goals scored with 65 and are averaging 5.4 a game.  The game was rugged with 155 penalty minutes being dished out including 7 misconducts, 2 game misconducts, 2 fighting majors and a match penalty.  Antigonish will travel to Trenton Sunday night for a clash with the Scotians.

The Valley Maple Leafs played a disciplined game against the Sackville Blazers Friday night and after all their shortcomings this season, the Leafs actually deserved more but ended up losing 4-3 to the first place Blazers who recorded their 9th win in 13 games to date this season.  With only 2:05 being played in the opening period, Eric Wozniewicz gave the Leafs a 1-0 lead.  It stayed that way for the next 4:15 when the Blazers Alex Charest let a wrist go from the point which beat Aidan Durnford high to the left side as it went by his mask with Durnford partially on his pads in the crease.  Only 55 seconds later Degen Noble let a shot go from the face-off circle to score his 10th of the season for Sackville.  Noble with his 11th made it 3-1 Blazers on sloppy, sloppy defense by the Leafs as Noble picked the puck up to the left of Durnford after Durnford skated too far out of his net and was just making it back to the net when Noble dumped it into an almost empty net.  Play went back and forth in the opening period as the Valley was up in shots 5-4 before Sackville took command for awhile and outshot the Leafs 11-1 before the Leafs gained a new breath of life and outshot the Blazers 9-2.  Sackville had a 17-15 advantage overall in the opening frame.

The Antigonish AA Munro Jr. Bulldogs completed their weekend home and home with the Eskasoni Jr. Eagles Sunday in Eskasoni with their 11th consecutive win to begin the 2021-2022 NSJHL season.  Like so many other games, the Jr. Bulldogs struck first with Connor Doherty and Jake MacDonald putting the university town up 2-0.  Doherty finished the day with his goal while adding a pair of assists in the Bulldogs 5-3 win.  after giving themselves a 2-0 advantage, they allowed the Eagles to squeeze back into the game for a short time as Antle Denny and Kinnon Williams both scored to knot the game at 2-2.  It stayed that way until the final two minutes of the second period when Craig Landry put Antigonish back on top 3-2.  The Jr. Bulldogs took that lead to the dressing room after forty minutes and then came out in the third period and added two more from Sam Grant who scored the game winner which was followed by the Jr. Bulldogs final goal of the afternoon from Ryan MacLellan.  Antle Denny with his second of the afternoon closed out the scoring with the Jr. Eagles third goal with 14 seconds left in regulation.  The Jr. Bulldogs now return home for a game Friday Nov 19 when they host the Cumberland County Blues before hitting the road for two more in Pictou Sunday, Nov 21 and East HantsFriday, Nov 26.

The Brookfield Elks stunned everyone Saturday afternoon, Nov 13 at the Don Henderson Memorial Rink in Brookfield by defeating the Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates 6-5 on a power-play goal from Brennan MacDonald with only 40 seconds remaining in regulation as Luke Hadley was serving a hooking penalty for the Pirates which had been called 16 seconds earlier and with 56 seconds left in regulation.  Even crazier is the fact, the Strait Pirates coming into the game stood at 6-1-0 compared to the Elks 0-7-1 record.  The Strait Pirates led throughout much of the game taking leads of 2-0 and 4-2 before stretching their lead to 3 goals at 5-2 in the third period before the roof collapsed on the Canadian Tire Strait Pirates.  Noah Latimer was the artillery man for the Elks firing 3 goals and adding an assist to bring the Elks back from 5-2 down to just a single goal behind at 5-4 before Owen Gravel tied it for the Elks 44 seconds after Latimer’s 3rd goal and the Elks 4th of the afternoon, Then it was MacDonald’s turn for the game winner with 40 seconds showing to give Brookfield their first win of the 21-22 NSJHL Season.  The Strait Pirates fell to 6-2-0.  Port Hawkesbury outshot Brookfield 49-46.  Jayden Muise scored twice for the Pirates with single markers going to Gregor Yoell, Owen Stockdale and Blake Hadley.