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League News
Colts now 5-0-0 against Lumberjacks
The Valley Maple Leafs earned a huge win Friday night while the South Shore Lumberjacks are still trying to understand the Capstone Colts. These were just two of four games played in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Friday night. The following is a recap:
Valley 6 Sackville Blazers 2
The Blazers never gave up for a second as they took shot after shot on Leafs net minder Jackson Murphy but Murphy never gave an inch as the Leafs scored on seemingly every opportunity put in front of them. The game was only 1:21 old when Dylan Manning showed impressive hustle as he outraced two Sackville defenders on a breakaway and put the puck between the pads of Blazers goaltender Conor Blackwood. Before six minutes had elapsed in the opening period, Jasper Fitch appeared as if he was going to pass the puck but instead hung onto it and scored from just inside the Blazers left face-off circle. The Leafs led 2-0 after one but were outshot by the Blazers 19-13 as Murphy played strong in the Leaf nets. In fact the Valley was outshooting Sackville 10-4 at one stage of the first only to see the Blazers put the gas on and outshoot the Leafs 15-3 the remainder of the period.
Only 17 seconds into the middle period, Jacob Gerhardt shot the puck into the wide open low right side of the net and the Leafs led 3-0. With only 1:56 to play in the middle frame, the Blazers Owen Fitzgerald took somewhat of a high shot which somehow deflected off the upper portion of Leaf defenceman Jake Kuryluk’s stick and the Blazers had their first goal of the game and trailed 3-1 entering the dressing room after outshooting the Leafs 16-13.
The Leafs jumped in front 4-1 when Justin Banks made a fantastic pass from the back of the Blazers net out to Gerhardt who scored his second of the night. The Blazers kept fighting and Ryan Welsh on a seemingly soft shot from the blue line while Sackville was on a power-play and it ended up past Murphy who was screened severely on the shot. The Leafs despite being outshot 15-6 in the third wrapped the game up with Gerhardt scoring his third of the night and 13th on the season on another nice pass as Gerhardt put it into an empty net. Jasper Fitch then put the Leafs 6th goal of the night into an empty net to make the final 6-2. Sackville outshot the Leafs 50-32 on the night but have now lost all three games they have played against the Valley this season and have been outscored 14-8 in the three contests. The Leafs now embark on a six game road trip with their opening game in Bridgewater Saturday night. They do not return home until Friday Feb 14th when East Hants will be in for a 7:30 start.
Capstone Colts 5 South Shore Lumberjacks 0
With the Lumberjacks losing, it pulled the Leafs to within 3 points of the fourth place South Shore team in the race for the final playoff spot in the Fred Fox Division. Even larger is the fact the Leafs and Lumberjacks were set to collide in Bridgewater Saturday night. In Friday ’s game at the old C.F.B. Shearwater Forum, the Colts staked themselves to a 4-0 lead after the opening period on goals from Jacob Trioni-Willis, Cody Garcin, Matthew Jessome and Finn Merritt’s 19th goal of the season. It stayed 4-0 through forty minutes and the only goal in the third came off the stick of Brady Wambolt. Conor Brace recorded his second shut-out of the season, with against the Lumberjacks with the previous one coming back on Nov 29th also by a score of 5-0. The Colts have defeated the Lumberjacks every time they have played them this season and are now 5-0-0 against the Lumberjacks while outscoring them 24-7. Brace now has a 2.47 Goals Against Average and a .925 save percentage tis season. The Colts are now 18-7-0 on the season while the South Shore falls to 10-12-0.
Pictou 3 Port Hawkesbury 1
The Scotians continue to play superlatively with another win over the Strait Pirates by a score of 3-1. The league’s top point getter Lane Lochead assisted on all 3 Scotian goals giving him 28 assists on the season to go along with 12 goals for 40 points. The Scotians outshot the Strait 37-35. Drew McKinnon opened the game’s scoring in the first for the Scotians before Matt Carson scored in the second period to put Pictou up 2-0 after forty minutes. Cadyn Power on the power-play pulled the Strait Pirates back to within a goal before Cale McLaughlin scored for Pictouto give the Scotians their 3-1 win. Eli James stopped 34 of 35 shots for the Scotians.
East Hants 8 Eskasoni 2
Davis Cooper from Hammonds Plains playing in only his 9th game with the Penguins in the 24-25 season connected for a goal while registering 4 assists in the Penguins 8-2 romp. Connor McNamara scored three times for the Pens including the game’s first two goals with one of them being of the short-handed nature. Isaac Lawson scored the third goal of the first for East Hants. The Pens went up 6-1 after forty minutes on goals from Cooper, Alex Field and Chris Caissie with Jesse Ross notching the lone tally for the Jr. Eagles. Ross scored the Eagles second goal of the game 1:58 into the third period before Logan Durno and McNamara with his second short-handed goal of the evening finishing the game’s scoring. Cooper in the nine games he has played for the Penguins has proven valuable with three goals and 7 assists for ten points. East Hants outshot Eskasoni 39-27 to earn their 20th win in 24 games. They will be looking number 21 when they square off with the Brookfield Elks Saturday afternoon while Eskasoni returned to Cape Breton for a game with the Membertou Jr. Miners Saturday evening.