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Pens rally in third for 2 goal win over Jr. Miners
It was a game at the Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre Saturday evening that would leave any hockey fan scratching their head and trying to figure how the eventual winners, the East Hants Penguins could play so solidly in the first and third periods, while the hometown Membertou Jr. Miners controlled the second period. The end result was a 6-4 Penguins victory as they rallied from a 4-2 deficit after two periods to score four unanswered goals in third to win and remain the league’s only undefeated team with an 8-0-0 record.
The Penguins outshot the Jr. Miners 16-6 in the first and 19-7 in the third while the Jr. Miners had a 9-7 advantage in the second. Pens Head Coach Laurie Isenor said after the game, "it was bizarre the way two teams played like they did controlling the play such as they did.” Despite their 16-6 advantage in shots in the opening period, he said, “we did not play as well as we did in the third and attributed that to a long bus ride to Membertou on Saturday.” The Jr. Miners were in the penalty box before the game was three minutes old as they were caught with too many men on the ice. Hayden Tamm who ended the game with 3 assists including one on Devin Meagher’s first goal of the game as the pair skated exceptionally hard into the Membertou end and Tamm made an exceptional pass over to Meagher and it was 1-0 East Hants as he put a shot high to the right of Jr. Miners goalie Lucas Fraser.
The Jr. Miners has few chances in the opening frame but one saw Landon Clarke try to split the Pens defence to no avail. Another opportunity came when Alex Chenhall drove to the Pens net and forced Fintan Boudreau to make an initial save and then another on a rebound but the Jr. Miners could not get into position to get solid control of the puck and failed to score. The Pens then went up 2-0 on a goal from Alex Field who seemingly tipped in a shot from the blue line. The Jr. Miners were serving a minor when Brady Doucette streaked in on a break-away and made the score 2-1 with 26 seconds remaining in the Jr. Miners minor. The only other decent scoring chance for the Jr. Miners in the first was when Garrett MacIntosh and Ty Oliver broke in but could not get a quality shot on net.
In the second period, it was two different clubs as the Jr. Miners came out strong, skating furiously when Landon Clarke came in over the Pens blue line and as he approached let a bullet shot go from the face-off circle to knot the game at 2-2.
Jacob Reigate then had a nice back-hand shot stopped by Fraser as he streaked down the right side before Noah Comeau was stopped stone cold from 15 feet in front of the Jr. Miners net. It was at this point East Hants appeared as if they were beginning to play like they did in the opening period, this was before Landon Clarke rang a shot off the left goal post of the Pens net to keep the score tied at 2-2. Hayden Tamm then went in close for the Pens but despite his three assists had a hard wrist shot stopped by Fraser. Then with the teams playing 4 on 4, the Pens coughed the puck up at centre ice and the Jr. Miners went up 3-2 on a nice passing play as Alex Chenhall scored for the Jr. Miners. The Jr. Miners kept attacking and with 3:34 left in the middle period, went up 4-2.
Early in the third, Alex Field scored his second of the game on a bang-bang play just 2:15 into the third to bring the Pens to within a goal at 4-3. The Pens kept attacking and with 5:48 remaining, Jacob Sanford tied the game at 4-4 and then 1:18 later and only 4:00 remaining in regulation, Blake Irvine scored the game winner on a great shot from the point. Membertou pulled Fraser with 1:13 remaining but it did not work in their favour as Devin Meagher scored his second of the game into an empty net to make the final 6-4 Pens. East Hants outshot the Jr. Miners 19-7 in the third for a game total of 42-22 over Membertou.
Both teams now have to think of the many facets of Saturday’s game and return to action Sunday as the Pens will try to improve to 9-0-0 when they visit the Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates in the Strait at 4:30 while the Jr. Miners travel to Antigonish for a 7:30 encounter with the 7-1-0 Jr. Bulldogs. Elsewhere Saturday:
Sackville 5 Brookfield 3
The Blazers improved to 7-2-0 with five straight goals in the second period rallying from a 2-0 deficit. Jack Sullivan opened the scoring for the Elks in the first before Jackson Spraggon made it 2-0 Elks in the second. The Blazers then exploded for five in a row from Adam Maillet, Lawson Cook, Emerson Sherwood, Cameron Emmanuel and Will Meek. Keegan Macumber scored the Elks third goal in the final period of regulation but it was as close as the Elks could get. Thomas Gariepy stopped 53 of the 58 shots he faced while Connor Blackwood was just as sharp blocking 41 of the 44 shots directed his way. The Elks loss was their second of the weekend as they fell to 2-6-1 for 5 points.