Opening Night Recap

South Shore  3

East Hants   1

The East Hants Penguins did not lose their first game of the season until they were mid-way through the season in 24-25.   Friday night's opener in Lantz saw them up against a fierce rival in the South Shore Lumberjacks and the Penguins except valiant third period when they were stymied again and again by Lumberjacks Goalie Keegan Greencorn,  looked flat and could find no rhythm to their game in the opening forty minutes as they lost 3-1 to the Lumberjacks, the team who has eliminated the Penguins in the opening round of the playoffs the past two seasons.

56 seconds into the game, the Lumberjacks' Will Cook missed a great two-on-one chance, and then the Penguins missed a wide-open opportunity in front of the South Shore net as Adrian Nicholson tried to get it over to Chris Brill, as Brill had a wide-open net in front of him.

After those scoring chances, the Lumberjacks went up 1-0 with 4:44 having elapsed as Will Cook, Lyle MacIntyre, and Owen McDermid teamed up on some great passing to see McDermid score and put the Lumberjacks up 1.

A short time later, Andrew George teamed with Owen McDermid as George let a wrist shot go from the point and McDermid was close to put it in to make it 2-0.  The Lumberjacks were not finished as Brandon Rideout broke in from the right side of the blue line and put one directly past Fintan Boudreau in the Pens' nets.  Prior to the Rideout goal, the Penguins spent some time on the power-play outshot the Lumberjacks 11-0 but could not get anything past Greencorn when he was called upon.

East Hants outshot the South Shore 18-9 in the opening period, but you would not have really noticed it hugely except for Finley Diab's excellent chance when he broke in on Greencorn, only to see Greencorn make an excellent save.

The second period began with the Penguins playing short-handed for the opening 1:45.  South Shore came out strong in the opening couple of minutes on the power-play with Owen Cleary missing in close for the Lumberjacks.  Midway through the period, Lyle MacIntyre of the Lumberjacks missed short-handed on a breakaway.

The only real good scoring chance for the Penguins in the second was when Nik Xidos missed on a clean breakaway with under two minutes to play.

In the third period, which was the only period the Penguins seemed to be able to at last find their mojo, Finley Diab, on a bang-bang play in front of Greencorn, scored after Greencorn made two initial saves before Diab was able to put a back-handed shot and notch the Pens' first and only goal of the game behind the Lumberjacks' net.

There was no scoring for the remainder of the game with the South Shore up 3-1, but still some great scoring chances.  Chris Caissie skated from behind the visitors' net and out to the right face-off circle and levelled a hard wrist shot which Greencorn foiled him on.  East Hants kept playing strong as Braedy Kirton missed on a wide-open chance and Ryan Langlois missed a superb chance.

Greencorn continued to play brilliantly for the Lumberjacks as Chris Caissie and Diab missed in real close as Pens played with an empty net for the final minute.  Prior to the Pens putting a 6th attacker on the ice, Caissie went in all alone on Geencorn only to take a shot and send it five feet over the net.  East Hants outshot the South Shore 19-12 in the third and 49-34 for the entire game.

Capstone Colts  5     Windsor Oxen  4  (Shoot-out)

It was a heartbreaking loss for the seemingly vastly improved junior team from Windsor, now known as the Windsor Oxen.  The Colts, defending NS Junior Champions, tied the score at 1-1 on a marker from Liam Andrews, only 17 seconds after Dylan Manning had put the Oxen up 1-0.

The Oxen then jumped in front 3-1 in the second period on goals from William Hartnell and Cam Walsh 47 seconds apart, with Walsh's goal coming short-handed.

In a span of 2:44 mid-way through the third period, the Colts scored three in a row, the first two from Nolan Stevens, including one on the power-play.  Stevens' two goals tied the game at 3-3 before Finn Merritt put the Colts in front 4-3.  The Oxen never gave up as Wilson Davison tied the game for Windsor with 8:11 to play in regulation, and that was the way it stood after 60 minutes, 4-4.

The teams then played 5 minutes of sudden-death overtime, and the score remained 4-4.  It took a shoot-out, and after three players from each team attempted to score, Liam Andrew, who tied for the league lead in goals scored last season, was the only one of six shooters able to score to give the Colts a 5-4 shoot-out win.  The Colts outshot the Oxen at the C.F.B. Shearwater Forum 39-31.

Eskasoni   5     Port Hawkesbury   2

The Jr. Eagles allowed the Strait Pirates the opening goal of the game on a power-play marker from Landon MacIntosh and it was 1-0 Strait after twenty minutes.

It was the second period when Eskasoni did their damage, scoring five consecutive goals, including a pair from Keegan Geizer, one on the power-play, to go up 5-1. 

Other Eskasoni goals were scored by Matthew Burke, Dillon Arsenault, and Jesse Cathart.  With only 39 seconds to play in the middle frame, Landon MacIntosh tallied his 2nd of the game for the Strait to make the score 5-2 Eskasoni after forty minutes.

If fans wanted more offense, they did not see it as the third period saw no goals scored.  Eskasoni outshot Port Hawkesbury 34-33.

Antigonish   5     Pictou   1 

Two fierce rivals opened their season in Antigonish, and the defending Maritime Junior Champions, the Antigonish Jr. Bulldogs, sidelined the Pictou County Scotians 5-1.

The Bulldogs' Luc Legere and the Scotians' Nate Supryka traded goals in the game's opening 15 minutes before Owen Juurlink put the Bulldogs ahead for good with 2:18 to play in the first.  Will MacKinnon and Legere, with his second of the game, scored 38 seconds apart in the second period before Brody MacPherson scored the Bulldogs' lone goal off the third to give Antigonish their 5-1 win.  Cohen Pictou collected three assists for the Bulldogs, who dominated the Scotians, outshooting them 42-16.