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Colts win 2nd Consecutive NS Jr. Hockey Championship | NSJHL

Colts win 2nd Consecutive NS Jr. Hockey Championship

Posted on April 11, 2026

By Dan Boyd

Colts win 2nd Consecutive NS Jr. Hockey Championship

The Capstone Colts are the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League Veterans Cup Champions for a second consecutive year after a hard fought 5-4 win over the Eskasoni Jr. Eagles in Eskasoni Saturday afternoon.

 
In spite of the Colts winning the series in four straight games, Saturday’s affair was a one-goal affair for a third consecutive time and nearly needed overtime for a third straight game until Jacob Trioni-Willis tallied with 2:56 left in regulation on the power-play to provide the Colts with their winning goal.  Aidan Stanwick had taken a costly high-sticking penalty for the Jr. Eagles with under five minutes to play.
 
The Colts led 2-1 after the opening period on goals from Dylan Paplinskie and Liam Andrews short-handed goal, Andrews 15th of the playoffs and fourth in four games in the championship series. He also collected eight points in the four championship series games.  Pierce Hutchings connected for the Jr. Eagles.
 
Eskasoni stormed out into the second period and took aa 3-2 lead on a short-handed goal from Keegan O’Neill followed by a power-play goal by Arlen Denny.  Finn Merritt tied it for the Colts before O’Neill with his second of the game put Eskasoni up one more time 4-3 with 6:55 to play in the second.  Connor Malana tied it for the Colts with 3:25 to play in the second and the game stood 4-4 after forty minutes until Trioni-Willis’s goal late in the third for the Colts. 
 
Eskasoni outshot the Colts 37-31 but for the series the Colts outshot the Jr. Eagles 167-149.  Andrews finished the playoffs as the Leading Scorer with 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points.  Finn Merritt also had an assist to go along with his goal for the Colts.
 
Keegan O’Neill who played outstanding for the Jr. Eagles throughout the 25-26 playoffs also recorded an assist to go along with his pair of goals.  Marcellus Francis and Kendrick Marshall both recorded a pair of assists for Eskasoni.
 
The last three games of the Championship series were all decided by a single goal and the Colts outscored Eskasoni 22-17 in the four games as Eskasoni after entering as an expansion team nearly ten years ago made their first appearance in a Provincial Championship Final.

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