Pictou 5   Antigonish AA Munro Bulldogs 2

The Antigonish AA Munro Jr. Bulldogs came out of Friday's home opener of the 2021-2022 Nova Scotia Junor Hockey League staring at something in the standings, thye are not used to seeing in recen years.  What they saw was a 1 under the L column meaning a loss which they did in losing to the Pictou County Scotians 5-2 Friday night in Antigonish.

Tanner Kay put the Jr. Bulldogs up 2-0 after twenty minutes with his first goal just 1:41 into the game and his second with only 2:15 left in the opening period.  It was the only scoring the Bulldogs would do for the remainder of the game as the Scotians came back with a goal in the second and four unanswered goals in the third ans final period.

Connor Aucoin scored once and assisted on three other Pictou Goals with single markers going to Nathan Peters, Matt Carson with a pair including an empty net goal with 26 seconds remaining in the contest.  The other Scotians goal wqs netted by Luke Young

East Hants 6  Valley Maple Leafs 3

With newly-elected Hants West MLA Melissa Sheehy-Richard dropping the puck for the ceremonial face-off and in her opening remarks, reminding fans in Windsor, this was the 54th year since Junior B Hockey began in Nova Scotia, the Leafs and East Hants Penguins squared off and with the exception of a couple of stretches by the Penguins to open the game up, it was essentially a lacklustre affair with the Penguins winning 6-3.  East Hants started strong out-shooting the Leafs 26-13 and taking a 3-1 first period lead.  The Leafs struggled defensively leaving Penguins alone in front of the net but in saying this, Leafs Goalie Aiden Durnford made the highlight reel save of the night less than three minutes into the game with the Pens Logan Cutler parked to the left side of the net and Durnford robbing Cutler blind.

Durnford blocked 50 of the 56 shots he faced but it was only about 30 seconds after his spectacular save that Cole Stewart took a pass direectly in front of the net and dumped it behind Durnford.

The Pens then began to dominate play for the next 7-8 minutes and went up 2-0 only 4:10 later when Evan McHenry had sole position of the puck coming in on Durnford and it was 2-0 Pens.  Griffin Radford on a soft shot brought the Leafs back to within 1 before Evan Wheeler, once again with lots f time controlling the puck scored with 8 seconds left to put the Pens back up by 2 at 3-1 after twenty minutes.  Both teams exchnaged a pair of goals in the middle period with the Leafs showing considerably more attention.  Robbie McDowell and Bruen Fisher scored goals after Andrew McCarron had the brought the Leafs back to within a goal at 3-2.  Witht he score 5-2, Chris Brown tallied for the Leafs with 2:19 left in the second and East Hants went to the dressing room up 5-3.

Evan McHenry scored his second of the night late in the third period to make the final 6-3.

Sackville 4    Capstone Colts 2

It was a hard fought game at the old CFB Shearwater Stadium, the new home for the Capstone Colts, formerly the Cole Harbour Colts on Friday night Oct 1st.  Veteran Tyler Puma gave the Colts a 1-0 lead with 3:37 having elapsed in the opening period in one of three Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Regular-Season opening games.

Luc Arsenault then tied the league opener for the Blazers with 6:41 gone in the middle frame to knot the game between the Blazers and Colts to leave a 1-1 draw after two periods.

With Donovan Cyr serving a cross-checking penalty for the Blazers, Brad Crossley put the Colts back in front 2-1 early in the third.  It did not stay that way for long as Mitch Comeau scored the tying goal for the Blazers with 8:06 gone in the final frame.  Deegan Noble rifled the game winner to put the Blazers ahead for the first time in the game with 9:57 to play.  Noble's goal and three assists paced the Blazers.  Noble also assisted on the Blazers Noah Healey's empty-net goal with six ticks showing on the clock to make the final 4-2 Sackville.  Adam Fisher stopped 31 of 33 shots in the Blazers net as they now prepare for their home opener Monday in Sackville at 7:30 as they face-off against the Brookfield Elks.

The Cumberland County Blues know both the good times and the bad times since they began play in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League nearly 20 years ago.  At the beginning, they were a strong powerful club that took no hostages along the way and advancing to at least 1 Don John Memorial Cup Tournament.  However over the past 8-10 years, things have not gone as well for the Blues who will open their 2021-22 schedule at home Friday evening in Springhill against the Brookfield Elks.  The Blues will be under the very capable leadershp of former NHL Veteran Bill Riley who took the team over after it appered the Blues were ready to drop out of the League earlier this spring.

No question Riley will be looking to improve on the Blues 52-190-13 record over the past 8-10 years and he is confident this cn happen.

Riley says the Blues will create a winning environment and battle every night.  With Riley's winning past it's a new start for the organization.  This year's team starts from the net out with number 1 netminder Josh Doyle.  He's a proven starter who comes to battle every night.  Add a solid Defensive core with a good mix of grit, skill and determination from our forwards and the Blues are excited to get the season started!

The Blues will conclue a weekend home and home series with the Elks when they travel to Truro Saturday afternoon to play the Elks at the Colchester Legion Stadium.

The Brookfield Jr. Elks enter each and every season with a positive outlook despite not having a winning regular season record since 2012-2013 when they went 19-10-2.  Since that time, the Elks have finished last in their division with a combined record of 6-80-9 in their last three complete seasons of hockey stretching between 2017-2018 and 2019-2020.

The Elks have had a busy summer

The Liverpool Privateers have had a very successful hockey club since moving to the South Shore nearly a decade ago.  They have yet to have a losing season, have made it to one Nova Scotia Provincial Championship against Pictou in 2015-2016 before losing in six games.  They have had a regular season record of 162-77-16.  However, despite their effective play during the regular season, they have always hit a bump in the road come playoff time.  In recent years they have had two absolute classic Best-of-Seven playoff series openers against the East Hants Penguins with many games going to overtime and double overtime but they came up empty both times, losing to the Penguins.

The Privateers are on the road for their opening two games of the season to begin 21-22 as they travel to Membertou Saturday night for a game against the Jr. Miners and then conclude their weekend trip to Cape Breton by playing the Eskasoni Jr. Eagles Sunday afternoon.

The Privateers want to remain strong this year and next as it is in the spring 2023 when they will host the Don Johnson Memorial Cup symbolic of Atlantic Hockey Supremacy.

General Manager Jim Bottomely is excited saying the Privateers training camp was held   at the Halifax Forum under the direction of the new coaching  staff of Ben Duffy ,Thane Hughes and Cam Scott. He said, "This years attention was to re load on some top young prospects as we host the 2023 DOJO. In that regard Daniel Kline from Halifax who played for the McDonalds was very impressive at center and a late addition to camp was Aaron Lane from Bridgewater, who played defence last season for the Lumberjacks who  decided on starting his education at Dal , so due to the time commitment he will be another key addition.  A couple of returnees who stood out are Josh Nicholson at Defence , Matt Orman and Alec Howie up front and in nets Eric Bilodeau who recently returned from the Truro Bearcats training camp.