GrayJay Sports
League News
3 Holiday Monday Games
Six more teams concluded their 24-25 Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Seasons on the Holiday Monday and the season will conclude with a pair of games Tuesday night prior to the opening the playoffs on Thursday night. The following is a rundown of action Monday:
Port Hawkesbury 5 Pictou County 3
The Strait Pirates food themselves behind 3-1 after two periods in an early Holiday Monday afternoon game in Trenton. However they obviously said to themselves, “guys the playoffs start Friday and we have to begin playing better.” Whether that was said or something else, the Strait came out smoking in the third period scoring four unanswered goals to defeat the Scotians 5-3. It marked the Strait’s first win over Pictou in seven regular season games, having lost two previous ones in overtime by scores of 2-1 and 5-4 and others by scores of 3-1, 4-2, 5-2, 3-1 and 5-1 to be outscored in the seven regular season games 30-17.
The four third period goals for the Strait on Monday were scored by Jesse Gillis, Liam Trenholm, Cadyn Power and Noah Harrison. The last three goals coming in the final 6:08 of the game. The Strait’s other goal giving him two in the game came off the stick of Liam Trenholm in the second period. Keegan Macumber gave the Scotians a 1-0 lead after the first and Amias Crossman and Lane Lochead scored in the second to give Pictou their 3-1 lead after two. The Strait outshot the Scotians 47-39 and finished the season with a record of 11-16-3 for 25 points and fourth place in the Rowe Division while Pictou finished in second place with a record of 18-8-4 for 40 points.
Port Hawkesbury will open their Best-of-Seven Divisional Semi-Final with the three-time defending Provincial Champion Antigonish Bulldogs with games 1 and 2 in Antigonish Friday and Sunday night, both games beginning at 7:30 p.m. In four regular season games the Bulldogs were 4-0-0 outscoring the Strait 23-5.
Meanwhile the Scotians and Membertou Jr. Miners will get real busy playing their opening three games in four nights. The first will be in Trenton Thursday evening at 6:30, then back in Membertou for Game 2 Friday night at 7:30 p.m. before going back to Pictou for Game 3 Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. The Scotians were 3-0-1 in the regular season against the Jr. Miners with Membertou going 1-3-0. The Scotians outscored the Jr. Miners 14-8 in the four games, winning 1-0, 5-2 and 4-1 while losing in overtime 5-4.
East Hants 4 Sackville 2
The Blazers concluded their season going 16-12-2 in 30 games after falling 4-2 to the East Hants Penguins at home Monday evening. The Penguins meanwhile finished 26-4-0 for 52 points. The clubs were tied 2-2 after two periods on Monday. Xavier Rivard tallied for the Blazers in the first to put Sackville up 1-0 before Rylan McQuaid on the power-play and Marcus Tench gave the Pens a 2-1 lead after twenty minutes. The only goal of the second period belonged to Aiden Tucker of the Blazers. Jacob Sanford and Jacob Reigate scored for the Pens in the third to give East Hants their 4-2 win. Conor Blackwood turned away 39 of 43 shots in the Sackville nets and Fintan Boudreau turned away 41 of 43 shots in the Penguins net. The Penguins won all 6 regular season games against Sackville, outscoring the Blazers 26-11.
Sackville will open their playoff divisional semi-final Friday night on the road in Shearwater at 7:30 against the Capstone Colts before returning home for Game 2 Monday night in Sackville at 7:30 p.m. The Blazers had a far better season in games with the Colts going 3-2-0 while outscoring the Colts 23-22. East Hants will open against the South Shore in Lantz Friday night before going to Bridgewater Saturday night. East Hants won all four games against the Lumberjacks in the regular season by scores of 4-2, 4-0, 6-2 and 4-3 in a shoot-out, outscoring the Lumberjacks 18-7.
Capstone Colts 8 Valley Maple Leafs 5
The Colts staked themselves to a 4-0 lead and it appeared they were in for an easy win but the Valley Maple Leafs demonstrated their never-die attitude and crawled back into the game where they trailed only 5-4.
The Colts went up 3-0 after one period on power-play efforts by Jack DuLong and Camden McKenzie and another goal from Nik Xidos. Cooper Puma with his 13th of the season put the Colts up 4-0 less than two minutes into the second. The Leafs then started a comeback when Nick Goodwin made it 4-1 only 26 seconds after Puma’s goal. Dylan Manning then made it 4-2 with Goodwin and Manning both finishing with four point afternoons. McKenzie with his second of the afternoon put the Colts back in front by 3 before Dylan Manning and Wilson Davison scored in the final two minutes of the second to put the Leafs only a goal behind at 5-4 entering the third. Riley Henman then made it 6-4 before Nick Goodwin with his second of the afternoon made it 6-5. The Colts did not allow the Leafs to tie the game as Finn Merritt and Liam Andrews both scored to give the Colts their 8-5 win. Jacob Gerhardt with a pair of assists finished as the Leafs top team scorer on the season finishing with 14 goals and 16 assists for 30 points. The goals by Merritt and Andrews were their respective 23rd goals of the season and when Devin Meagher failed to score for East Hants in Sackville, meant Merritt and Andrews finished with the most goals in the League for 24-25 with 23. Meagher after leading practically the entire season settled for 22. The Colts finished the season with a 22-8-0 record for 44 points while defeating the Leafs in four of their five games outscoring the Valley 33-16 in their five games. The Leafs after beginning the season 0-7-0 went 10-11-2 the remainder of the season and look forward to a promising 25-26 season. The Colts outshot the Leafs 55-37 including 22-10 in the opening period.