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League News
East Hants now 16-1-0
The East Hants Penguins know full-well that if they are to play the Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs again, it will not happen unless they play for the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Championship later this spring. After suffering their first loss of the season to the Jr. Bulldogs one week ago, the Pens have found that winning groove with a win over the Brookfield Elks and another win over the South Shore Lumberjacks at home Friday evening. It was close all the way until Daniel Kline received a major for checking from behind mid-way through the second, allowing Connor McNamara to score on the power play for the Pens with 1:58 left in the major penalty. It was enough as the Pens held on for a 3-2 win to improve to 16-1-0 on the season and also provided them with the season series win over the Lumberjacks as it was the Pens third straight win over the South Shore this season.
East Hants went up 2-0 before the game was ten minutes old on a pair of goals from Jayson Hanson. The Lumberjacks fired right back as Brandon Rideout and Brennan Coleman scored to tie the game at 2-2 and that is the way it stayed until McNamara’s game winning goal. The Lumberjacks are once again a game under .500 at 7-8-0. The South Shore outshot the Pens 35-29 with Fintan Boudreau stopping 33 of 35 shots for the Penguins. Jacob Sanford and Logan Durno both recorded a pair of assists for the Pens.
Eskasoni Jr. Eagles 4 Valley Maple Leafs 2
All hot streaks are eventually cooled down but the Valley Maple Leafs with the Lumberjacks loss in East Hants were sure hoping Friday night would not be the night against the last place Jr. Eagles. The Leafs looking for their 6th win in eight games however were stymied time and time again while not being able to find any consistency in their play losing to the last place Jr. Eagles 4-2, who recorded their fourth win of the season to improve to 4-10-0 while the Maple Leafs fell to 5-10-0. Jacob Wolodka scored his 8th goal of the season on a nice pass from Arlen Denny as he drew Graydon Mole out of his net and beat him on the short left-side. The Eagles did not score again until the mid-way mark of the second period as Keigan Geizer jumped on a puck with a large crowd all around Mole at the Leafs net and slid it home and it was 2-0 Eskasoni. The Leafs did not have numerous scoring chances but the few they did have through forty minutes. Andrew Burke stood tall in the Eskasoni net as the Leafs outshot the Jr. Eagles 29-24 through forty minutes.
The game’s final four goals were scored in the game’s final 3:18 of play in regulation with Nick Oickle scoring his fourth goal in three games for the Leafs on the power-play after taking a great pass from Jacob Gerhardt who had been fed the puck by Owen MacDermid. The 2-1 improved to 3-1 for Eskasoni 1:53 later Keigan Geizer took a shot and beat Mole on shot to a wide-open right side. The Leafs were still not finished as Nick Goodwin scored his 8th of the season with Andrew Burke down in his crease and the Maple Leafs were once again back to within one with 34 seconds left. It was as far as they could get as Jesse Ross was then going in on a breakaway with Mole having been pulled only to be hooked. The Officials then awarded him his fifth goal of the season and that was the final 4-2 Eskasoni. The Leafs finished with a shots advantage of 48-39 with Burke being steady on his feet the entire night. Mole who had been so brilliant in recent games was coming off a call-up from the Valley Wild-Cats of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League where he played in Summerside for the Cats Thursday night and suffered a 6-1 loss. Whether he was somewhat fatigued is unknown. Owen MacDermid collected a pair of assists for the Leafs and Noah Tanner a couple of assists for Eskasoni.
Pictou County Scotians 5 Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates 2
The Scotians recorded a much needed win and moved five points up on the Strait Pirates in the chase for second place in the Rowe Division. Nate Supryka last season’s league scoring champion scored three times for the Scotians giving them leads of 1-0, 4-1 and 5-1. In between Landon MacIntosh tied the game at 1-1 for the Strait while Drew MacKinnon and Lane Lochead put the Scotians up 3-1 with a pair of late second period goals. Craig Saulnier finished the game’s scoring for the Pirates. MacKinnon also recorded a pair of assists for the Scotians who out shot the Strait 45-35. Eli James turned away 33 of 35 Port Hawkesbury shots. Supryka with his three goals now has seven on the season to go along with four assists, but still a far cry from his dominant performance in 23-24 when he scored 20 times and added 24 assists for 44 points and the League Scoring Award. Pictou is now 8-4-3 for 19 points while the Strait is 6-10-2 for 14 points.