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Plenty of action to open 25 portion of schedule
It is back to hard fought action in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Friday evening after a two-week Christmas break. While a few select teams are seemingly not worried about making the playoffs, as they records already present a strong showing that will essentially award them a berth.
However on many other fronts, anywhere between 8-12 games remain on team schedules with many of those games deciding who will be in or out of the playoffs as well as where the teams will eventually place in their respective divisions.
On Friday night, there are four games scheduled to open the 2025 portion of the Nova Scotia Junior Schedule.
In Windsor starting at 7:30, the East Hants Penguins will play the Valley Maple Leafs for the third time this season with the Penguins having already won a pair against the Leafs this season by scores of 7-0 and 9-6. The 9-6 contest was a crazy affair as the Leafs rallied numerous times but the Penguins would not say quit and won it. The Pens are 17-3-0 while the Leafs trail the South Shore Lumberjacks by four points in the race for the final playoff spot in the Fred Fox Division with a record of 7-11-0 but in seeing this record, one can only note the Leafs started 24-25 at 0-7-0, so they are 7-4-0 in their past 11 games. The Pens and Leafs have two games remaining between them after Friday’s game with the Leafs visiting East Hants January 31 and the Pens back in Windsor on Friday, Feb 14/25.
The Brookfield Elks take their 3-14-2 record onto the ice at C.F.B. Shearwater to play the Capstone Colts at 7:30 p.m. The Colts are presently at 13-7-0 and have already defeated the Elks three times this season by scores of 4-2, 6-1 and 6-5. After Friday’s game, the clubs will meet one more time this season in the regular season at Brookfield on Saturday, Feb 1/25 at 4:00 p.m. The Colts realize it will be tough despite defeating East Hants in a couple of games prior to the Christmas break to catch them for first place as they currently trail the Pens by 8 points wirth each team having ten games remaining in their regular schedule.
In Port Hawkesbury Friday night the Pictou County Scotians who trail the Antigonish Bulldogs by 7 points will play the Strait Pirates in a 7:30 contest. These two clubs have already met five times this season with the Scotians going 5-0-0 and winning by scores of 5-4 in overtime, 5-1, 3-1, 5-2 and 4-2 meaning the Scotians have outscored them 22-10. Port Hawkesbury meanwhile is 8-12-2 for 18 points and third place in the Rowe Division, 6 up on the fifth place Eskasoni Jr. Eagles and three ahead of the fourth place Membertou Jr. Miners.
In the fourth game Friday, the Eskasoni Jr. Eagles head to Antigonish for their third clash of the season with the Jr. Bulldogs. Eskasoni is still gunning hard for the playoffs, trailing the Jr. Miners by three points but it will be a tough road in Antigonish as the Bulldogs have won two previous games against the Jr. Eagles by counts of 6-2 and 3-2 this season. After Friday’s game, the two clubs will play one more in the regular season when the Bulldogs visit Eskasoni Jan 12.
Saturday, Jan 4th/25
The Valley Maple Leafs travel to Brookfield for a 4:00 p.m. start, meaning two games in less than 24 hours and four points they so desperately want to get a hold of.
However the Capstone Colts will travel to the South Shore to play the Lumberjacks in a 7:00 p.m. start in Bridgewater.
Sunday Jan 5th/25
The Pictou County Scotians will travel to Eskasoni for a 7:30 start Sunday night and the final game of Week 1 for 2025 will have the South Shore Lumberjacks in Sackville for a 7:30 start. The Lumberjacks depending on what happens Saturday in Bridgewater with the Colts could potentially be within a single point of the Blazers for third place in the Fred Fox Division.