GrayJay Sports
League News
Pens and Scotians win in sudden-death
There were a pair of overtime games in the NSJHL Friday, a blow-out at C.F.B. Shearwater and a shut-out in Antigonish as four games kicked off the 2025 portion of the regular season. The following is a re-cap of the four games Friday night:
East Hants 5 Valley Maple Leafs 4 (Overtime)
The Penguins were coming off a pair of losses to the Capstone Colts prior to the Christmas break and were looking to get back on track in Windsor against the Valley Maple Leafs. The game certainly did not prove to be easy because as much as the Penguins tried to pull away, the Leafs kept rallying.
The biggest difficulty for the Leafs in suffering the 5-4 overtime loss was their inability to stop giving the puck away during certain periods of the game. There was no scoring in the first period until the clubs struck fo three goals in the final 2:33. Davis Cooper opened the scoring for the Penguins on a shot from the point. Then a mere 15 seconds later the Leafs tied the game at 1-1 on Cody Hebb’s first goal of the season in a play which Pens goalie Will Shields seemed to lose sight of the puck as it went past him. Before the period concluded and only 1:10 after the Leafs tied the game, Devin Meagher took a sensational pass from Connor McNamara and with Leafs goalie Graydon Mole down and out, Meagher scored the first of his three on the night giving him 19 on the season into a wide-open Leafs net to make the score 2-1 Pens after twenty minutes. East Hants outshot the Leafs 17-13 in the opening frame.
In the second period, the Leafs were enjoying a power-play until Meagher grabbed a hold of a puck designated to be a pass between two defensemen and skated strongly on a breakaway to beat Mole and East Hants took a 3-1 lead. It stayed that way until Leafs defensemen Kayden Kuryluk scored the nicest goal of the game as he split the East Hants defence in close and put a shot into the top left-hand corner behind Shields and the period ended 3-2 East Hants with the Pens holding a 14-9 advantage in shots.
In the third, Tucker Hayne put the Penguins up by a pair with a wrist shot from the blue line and it was 4-2 but the Leafs were not finished. Nick Goodwin brought the Leafs back to within a goal on a nice back-hand shot. Then a short-time later it appeared the Pens would go up again by two goals at 5-3 as Connor McNamara scored with 7:49 to play only to see his goal disallowed due to goaltender interference forcing McNamara to serve a two-minute minor. With McNamara in the penalty box, the Leafs Kuryluk who played a solid game, scored his second of the age and third of the year with a top left-hand shot into the Pens net to tie the game 4-4 with 6:51 remaining in regulation.
In the overtime, Meagher for East Hants tallied his third of the game just 26 seconds into the five-minute sudden-death as he forced another steal to score and make the final 5-4 East Hants and improve the Penguins record to 18-3-0 while the Leafs fell to 7-11-1 for 15 points entering their game in Brookfield Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. East Hants Goaltender Will Shields played a strong game for the Pens especially in the third when he turned away14 of 16 Leaf shots but with 2:50 remaining and a mix-up in and around the East Hants cease, Shields was injured and had to be assisted from the ice limping. It was not known how serious his injury might have been as of this writing. East Hants outshot the Leafs 41-36 in total.
Pictou County Scotians 2 Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates 1 (Overtime)
The Strait Pirates were hopeful with Rory Wood’s goal 1:05 after the opening face-off that it might mean they would defeat the Scotians for the first time this season. However, such was not to be the case as it was the Pirates only goal as Matt Carson scored twice including the sudden-death overtime winner with 3:17 left in sudden-death to give the Scotians their 13th win of the season in twenty-one games. For the Pirates it was their third overtime loss in twenty-three games but it did give them another point as they moved four points up on the Membertou Jr. Miners for third place in the Sid Rowe Division. Lane Lochead assisted on one of Carson’s two goals who scored his ninth and tenth of the season and Lochead with his assist is now tied for the league scoring lead with Devin Meagher of East Hants. Meagher’s 3 goals in the Pens win over Valley gives him 19 goals and 15 assists for 34 points while Lochead now has 12 goals and 22 assists for 34 points. Eli James stopped 34 of 35 shots for the Scotians while Manny Strong turned away 32 of 34 shots for the Pirates. It was the Pirates second loss in overtime this season to the Scotians.
Antigonish 6 Eskasoni 0
The Jr. Bulldogs are now 18-3 after they dismantled the Jr. Eagles 6-0 scoring a pair of goals in each of the first, second and third periods. Owen Forsythe scored once and added an assist for Antigonish to keep him within one point of the league scoring lead as now has 10 goals and 23 assists for 33 points. Zachary Lorette scored twice for the winners, with other single markers going to Venel Campbell who scored short-handed for the home town Bulldogs and Will Normandeau and Max Baldwin who finished the game’s scoring in the third for the Bulldogs. Campbell’s goal was his 9th of the season. The Bulldogs outshot the Jr. Eagles 33-22 and by turning away the 22 shots, Adam Tkacz earned his third shut-out of the season for Antigonish, giving him nine including playoffs since the beginning of regular season play in 2023.
Capstone 10 Brookfield 3
At the C.F.B. Shearwater Forum, the opening two periods were competitive enough with the Colts taking a 5-3 lead after forty minutes but the third was not good at all for the 3-14-2 Brookfield Elks as they allowed the Capstone Colts to score five unanswered goals for a 10-3 win. The Colts led 3-2 after the first. Camden MacKenzie scored three times for the Colts who improved to 14-7-0 while Xavier Coggins scored twice. Single markers went to Finn Merritt who rifled home his 17th of the season, Nik Xidos, Luke MacPhee, Brady Wamboldt and Cody Garcin. Wambolt and McPhee also both recorded a pair of assists. For the Elks, Jackson Spraggon scored his 9th of the season on the power-play with Will Singer and Aiden Gloade also tallying for the Elks. The Colts who are travelling to Bridgewater to night for a game with the South Shore Lumberjacks at 7:00 p.m. outshot the Elks 44-29.