Eskasoni now 7-1-0, Antigonish slips by Windsor

The Sackville Blazers might be 1-6-0 entering their game with the Pictou County Scotians tonight in Pictou County but their latest loss was not due to any lack of effort on behalf of the Blazers who were blanked 1-0 by the 7-1-0 Eskasoni Jr. Eagles in Sackville Saturday night.  The game was crisp, chippy at times and played in 2 hours and 2 minutes.

Andrew Burke was sensational in the Jr. Eagles net as he stopped all 36 shots he faced.  Leaf Korthals stopped 24 of 25 shots directed at him by the Jr. Eagles,  The only goal of the game came with 4:45 left in the opening period when Marcellus Francis took a hard-wrist shot that beat Korthals from 10 feet out at the tip of the left face-off circle.  That goal held up as the Jr. Eagles went home with a victory.  

Sackville controlled the first period otherwise outshooting the Eagles 14-4 but for starters Logan Mitchell missed an excellent chance on a bak-handed shot which eluded the net marginally.  Dawson LaPlante missed another golden opportunity just to the right of Burke.  Logan Mitchell missed again very close and Aidan Tucker missed a gloria opportunity with Burke making key save after key save. Adam Maillet missed the best opportunity of the night for Sackville as his shot neat Burke cleanly but with the referee in his proper position could see while the puck eluded Burke, it stayed laying on the goal line and failed to enter the net. Burke also made a tremendous glove save on the Blazers LaPlante.

Eskasoni came back somewhat in the second period as they were outshot only 14-12 by the Blazers. In the second to leep the Eagles from going up 2-0, Blazers goalie Korthals made 2 tremendous back to back saves on Alexander Chenhall that kept the Blazers trailing by a goal.  Eskasoni did outshoot the Blazers 9-8 in the third but neither team was able to find the back of the net.  Penalty wise it was a game very similar to the One-Strait game on Friday in Windsor when an endless number of needless penalties were called.  A total of 17 minors were assessed along with 2 game misconducts, a misconduct and 2 fighting majors of a total of 74 minutes in penalties.  If it were not for the endless number of penalties, the game would have easily taken less than 2 hours to play.  One other game Saturday night:


Antigonish   6     Windsor   4

The Oxen from Windsor were hoping for another win after they blanked Port Hawkesbury Friday night 7-0 while the Bulldogs were hoping to recuperate from their setback to Pictou last Sunday.  Of course both could not happen an the end result was a 6-4 Jr. Bulldogs victory.  The Oxen played it close and Dylan Manning’s goal 32 seconds into the third period gave Windsor a 3-2 lead.  However, it was all downhill from that point as the Bulldogs rang off a pair of goals to jump in front 4-3 before the Oxen tied it again at 4-4 on a goal by Cam Walsh.  Will Normandeau scored twice in the final 6:50 of the game to give the Bulldogs their 6-4 win.  Normandeau’s first goal opened the game’s scoring and provided Antigonish with a 1-0 lead.  Other goal scorers for the Jr. Bulldogs were Owen Forsythe with just 18 seconds to play in the middle period, Owen Flemming and Jake Prince who also assisted on a pair for the Bulldogs.  Cam Walsh scored once and added a pair of assists for the Oxen with singles going to DeShawn Fletcher and William Hartnell.  Aidan MacLed assisted on three Oxen goals and the Bulldogs outshot Windsor 42-33.  The win leaves the Oxen with a 3-2-2 record for 8 points and a tie for third place in the Fred Fox Division with the Capstone Colts who they will play in Windsor this Friday at 7:30 p.m.