With Ole Man Winter and Mother Nature hammering the province with weather, the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League had four of their first five games post-Omnicron postponed due to treacherous weather and freezing roads. The weather relented Saturday after three games were sidelined Friday night and the teams got right down to business knowing the vital importance of every single point as they battle for playoff positioning, with the playoffs beginning March 1. First off in Brookfield:
Sackville 4 Brookfield 3
The Blazers won their 12th of the year but they worked and earned every goal as the Elks fought them to the bitter end and actually outshot the Blazers 46-43. The teams were tied at 1-1 after twenty minutes on Jack Meek’s goal for the Blazers and Coady Jollymore-Godfrey for the Elks. Ben Fraser put the Elks in front 2-1 4:46 into the second but the Blazers rallied for a pair of goals from Noah Healy who finished the afternoon with a pair of goals and an assist and the Blazers took a 3-2 lead to the dressing room after forty minutes. Brock MacNeil scored the game-winning goal for the Blazers less than 6 minutes into the third period before Luke Fielding brought the Elks back to within 4-3 mid-way through the third. That is as far the Elks could take it as they saw their record drop to 2-12-1. Both goaltenders played solid in nets for the 2 clubs with the Elks Pablo De Larringa blocking 39 of 43 shots while Bryon Ubberoi stopped 43 of 46 shots for the Blazers.
Liverpool 6 Valley Maple Leafs 2
It did not turn into much of contest in Liverpool as the Privateers struck early and often staking themselves to 2-0 and 6-1 leads while outshooting the Maple Leafs 47-22. Daniel Kline put the Privateers up 1-0 after twenty minutes at the Emera Centre. Joh Nicholson’s power-play markers gave Liverpool a 2-0 lead in the second before Ben Lawrence also scored on the power-play for the for the Leafs. It was Jude Greenwood game winning goal with 5:22 left in the middle frame that put the Privateers in front 3-1 after forty minutes. Liverpool scored three consecutive goals in third to go up 6-1 from Chris Meredith, Joe Osborne, and Greenwood with his 2nd of the afternoon before the Leafs Justin Banks scored his team’s 2nd and final goal of the evening. The Privateers are now 8-5-3 on the season while the Leafs fell to 4-11-1.
Cumberland 6 Eskasoni Jr. Eagles 4
The Blues and Eagles and Pictou Scotians and the Strait Pirates are in a tremendous dogfight for placings 3 through 6 in the Sid Row Division and the Blues are the only team who came out of play on Saturday with points. The Blues did this at home in Springhill by defeating the Jr. Eagles 6-4. The teams scored three goals before the game was three minutes old and they included a short-handed marker from the Blues Alex Griffiths and a power-play goal from the Jr. Eagles Adam Wilison just 20 seconds after the goal by Griffiths. Zack Gould opened the scoring for Cumberland 29 seconds into the contest. In the second period, Adam Fisher put the Blues up 3-1 only 2:27 into the second period before Jaden Martin and Ethan Stanwick tallied power-play goals for the Eagles to knot the game at 3-3. Will Harrison made it 4-3 Blues before Jacob Denny tied the game once again for Eskasoni with 2:13 left in the second. The Game-Winning goal for the Blues came off the stick of Jessie Estabrooks with only 16 seconds left in the middle period. Ezekiel Cormier scored the lone goal of the final period as he added an insurance marker for Cumberland. The win for Cumberland was their fifth of the season to go with 11 losses and 1 shoot-out/overtime loss while the Jr. Eagles are now just a single point in front of the Blues with a 6-10-0 record for 12 points.
Membertou 6 Pictou County Scotians 1
The Scotians Matt Carson ruined Jr. Miners goalie Hunter Chenall’s bid for a shut-out with 51 seconds to play in Saturday’s game in Membertou but the goal did not matter for the Scotians as the Jr. Miners had built themselves a comfortable 6-0 lead prior to Carson’s marker.
The Jr. Miners Andrew McCarron who continues to pay huge dividends for the Jr. Miners since being acquired from the Valley Maple Leafs scored once and added a pair of assists while other single goals were registered by Jarrett Hicks who registered the game winner, Brady MacLean and Ashton Paul on the power-play and Blake Cox and Coby McCarron. The teams were tied 36-36 in shots on goal. The win for the Jr. Miners was their 9th of the season against 5 regulation losses and 2 overtime/shoot-out losses to give them second place and 20 points while Pictou fell to 7-6-0 for 14 points.
GrayJay Sports