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High-Scoring Affair in Sackville
An unbelievable onslaught of offence took place in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League game between the Sackville Blazers and Capstone Colts Monday evening at the Blazers home rink. Sackville was attempting to snap a five game losing streak as they had not won since the first couple of days in November. Things started very well for the Blazers and finished quite well but there were moments in between which had to have the Blazers questioning their play. The end result was a solid 8-6 win for the Blazers over the Colts as Sackville improved to 10-8-1 for 21 points while the Colts stumbled to 12-7-0 but remain 3 points ahead of the Blazers for second place in the Fred Fox Division.
Monday night’s action saw the Blazers up 3-1 before you could practically blink. Just 4:11 into the contest, Xavier Rivard in a mad scramble for the puck final scored after Campbell could not get a grip on three rebounds but one thing is for sure, he made the Blazers work for their opening goal. Campbell followed that up with a great pad save off of the stick of Zach Jenkins and then prevented Adam Maillet from scoring in close. The Blazers went up 2-0 just 2:16 after Rivard’s goal when Josh Nicholson took a shot from the point that Campbell seemed screened on and it beat hm to the short left side.
The Colts then rallied and Connor Stewart took a shot from the point that was deflected by Nick Morin and the Colts were only down one. Rivard then put the Blazers up 3-1 after he skated hard from the face-off, 29 seconds after the Colts had moved to within one and let a shot go from 10-12 feet out and beat Campbell. Colts Head Coach Justin Boone was backed into a corner prior to the game as both of his regular goaltenders were writing University exams and 15 year-old Campbell was called up from Triple AAA.
After Rivard’s goal put the blazers up 3-1, the roof collapsed in so many words for Sackville as the Blazers allowed the Colts five unanswered goals to move in front 6-3. Trayner McCulloch scored the first of the five consecutive Colt goals. That was followed by Riley Henman who tied the game at 3-3 when he took the puck in on Sackville Goalie Tristan Bourdages and deked around him and put it home to his left-side. Sackville then had difficulty clearing the puck out of their own end and Camden MacKenzie pounced on it for the Colts and put the Colts up 4-3. Riley Henman then made it 5-3 Colts before Xavier Coggins made it 6-3 Colts. The Blazers did get one back with 0.41 seconds remaining and with Zch Jenkins serving a minor penalty for the Blazers, Mack Bursey literally out skated the Colts defender to the point where the Colts defneseman dropped his stick and Bursey buried it home for a short-handed goal. The first period was finally complete with the Colts up 6-4 despite being outshot 17-16.
In the second period, the Blazers started short-handed for the opening 1:03 and Conar Blackwood took over in the Sackville nets. He opened the period making a great save on the Colts Finn Merritt. Adam Maillet then scored to bring the Blazers back to within a goal at 6-5. Tyler Curnew of the Blazers probably threw the best check of the night as he hipped check the Colts Ryan Welsh into the boards along the Sackville bench. Adam Maillet missed a glorious scoring opportunity for the Blazers and then shortly after Blazers goalie Blackwood gave the puck away when the Blazers were on the power-play as he came out too far to challenge two Colt players. However the Colts missed two spectacular opportunities to tie the game at 6-6. Mack Bursey was also stopped stone cold by Campbell in the Colts net to keep the score 6-5 before the Blazers finally did it at 6-6 with 4:22 to play in the second on a goal by Aiden Tucker. The Blazers outshot the Colts 21-17 in the middle frame.
In the third the end to end action never relented as Adam Maillet was robbed blind on a brilliant stick save by Campbell. Will Meek attempted to but could not control the puck effectively enough and missed a wide-open nether the Blazers. Rivard then took a two minute charging minor for the Blazers and the Colts were all over the Blazers net for approximately 35 seconds but simply could not buy a goal. The Blazers finally wen ahead again with 4:53 showing on the clock for regulation play as Zach Jenkins scored before Logan Mitchell put one into an empty net with 3 seconds left to make the final 8-6. Rivard besides his two goals also added an assist while Tucker for the Blazers added a pair of assists to go along with his goal. Copper Puma recorded three assists for the Colts in a game that Colts Coach Justin Boone said, “we got a caught in a run and gun game which is not our style of hockey.” For the game the Colts were outshot 55-53.
Sackville is now finished until after Christmas break while the Colts have one game remaining at home Friday night at the C.F.B. Shearwater Forum complex as they will host the East Hants Penguins in a 7:30 start.