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Superb Hockey Game in Bridgewater
Nearly 700 hockey fans at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre in Bridgewater were treated to a fantastic hockey game Remembrance Day afternoon as their hometown South Shore Lumberjacks eked out a 3-2 5 round shoot-out victory over the Pictou County Scotians. The game featured hard skating, plenty of heads up passing, some hard hots and some phenomenal goaltending.
Both teams came out hungry from the opening face-off playing end to end hockey with a couple of bruising hits before the game was even five minutes old. With 4:45 having been played, Daniel Kline won a face-off for the Lumberjacks and slid a pass back to Brandon Rideout who took a wrist shot from approximately 12 feet out and beat Scotians goalie Eli James to the left side, James leaving the left side a little more unprotected than he wanted to. As play continued, the Lumberjacks Koen Shand dealt a polarizing check on the Scotians Porter McNamara at centre ice. The Lumberjacks then began to control play somewhat by the five minute mark before the Scotians snapped out of their short funk and saw Brett Murphy and Lane Lochead alone in front of the Lumberjacks net. Murphy missed initial and Lochead missed on a rebound that slid away from the goal post. Cale McLaughlin also missed in close for Pictou who outshot the South Shore 11-9 in the opening period.
The second period began with Pictou taking charge right away with Lane Lochead passing to Matt Carson and it was a 1-1 hockey game. It only stayed that way for less than two minutes with South Shore controlling the play. Justin Hardwick Brown was left unprotected by the Scotians defence and he put a shot past James to give the South Shore a 2-1 lead. The Lumberjacks then picked up the pace and with twelve minutes to play were outshooting the Scotians 8-2 in the second period. South Shore did run into penalty difficulties by taking three consecutive minors. They were able to kill the first two off but then took a third with 5:04 to play in the second period but Matt Carson tied the game at 2-2 with 3:38 left in the second. Hardwick Brown was directly in front of the Scotians net with 1:30 to play but James made an excellent point blank save to keep the game tied at 2-2. The Scotians then took their first penalty of the game with 1:11 to play in the second.
The third period began with the Scotians short-handed for the opening 49 seconds but before this penalty expired, Rideout took one for the Lumberjacks for goaltender interference. James made a great save off of Daniel Kline who let a shot go from outside the face-off circle nearing the Scotians blue-line. Another hard hit took place when Kline hit Drew Williams hard along the South Shore bench. Shortly after James robbed Andrew George with a great glove save. Pictou was all over the Lumberjacks net with 1:30 to play in regulation. The Scotians believed for a second they might have scored the winning goal but the referee ruled Greencorn’s pad had been pushed back into the net and therefore no goal. Cohen Westlake of the Lumberjacks then went in on a break-away with 10 seconds remaining in regulation but he was denied by James.
In overtime, the Scotians Lane Lochead went in on a break-away but a deflection off of Greencorn’s stick sent the puck 10 feet over the net. Both teams were not giving an inch and both had exceptional scoring opportunities in OT but to no avail.
In the Shoot-out — it lasted five rounds with Cohen Westlake scoring in the first round for the South Shore. It stayed that way until Matt Carson scored on the Scotians third shot. Brennan Coleman scored in the fifth round to finally give the Lumberjacks the victory. The win saw the South Shore improve their record to 6-6-0 for 12 points and fourth place in the Fox Division while the Scotians who were outshot 36-35 by the winners fell to 6-4-3 for 15 points and second place in the Rowe Division.
Colts 4 Sackville Blazers 1
Finn Merritt was Mr. Money in the bank for the Capstone Colts in Sackville Monday night as he scored a natural hat-trick, the Colts first three goals of the game and Liam Andrew tallied a late power-play goal in the second period to put Capstone up 4-0 after forty minutes. The only goal in the third period was from the Blazers Dawson Laplante. Merritt’s three goals now give him 9 on the season and he also recorded an assist on Andrew’s goal to also give him 9 assists on the season for 18 points. Connor Stewart recorded three assists for the Colts bumping his assist total to 13 on the season to go along with a pair of goals. Cody Garcin recorded a pair of assists giving him eight on the season and three goals for 11 points. The Colts outshot the Blazers 45-30 and improved their record to 8-5-0 for 16 points while the Blazers are now 9-4-1 for 19 points.