Crusaders rampage through competition

Kensington squad goes undefeated in 18-and-under girls tournament

The Kensington Crusaders ransacked the competition and finished 5-0 at the last Volleyball P.E.I. 18-And-Under Girls Division tournament of the season at Immanuel Christian School in Charlottetown.

Kensington ended atop Tier 1 as the squad heads into the provincial championships Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., at Colonel Gray High School.

Rural Raiders 1 finished second at 4-1, followed by Colonels White (3-2), Colonels Gray (2-3), Red Mudd Red (1-4) and Summerside Suns Two (0-5) in third through sixth, respectively.

In Tier 2, Summerside 1 also had a 5-0 mark and topped the circuit ahead of the West Prince Islanders (4-1).

Third place went to Rural Raiders Red (3-2), fourth to the Evangeline Coyotes (2-3), fifth to the Kinkora Blazers (1-4) and sixth to Red Mudd Black (0-5).

Toronto responded just 35 seconds later when Nylander buried a rebound off a Jake Gardiner shot from the point for his first goal of the playoffs.

The Leafs appeared to go ahead at 3:04 when Zach Hyman beat Rask with a nolook backhand as he fell to the ice.

But the Bruins challenged the play for goalie interference, and replays showed the winger knocked the stick out of Rask’s hands as he cruised through the crease just before scoring.

Boston took control of the period from there as Toronto could barely get out of its own zone or complete a clean breakout.

Andersen - who recorded 42 stops in a 4-3 victory in Game 5 on Saturday - made great saves off Rick Nash, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to keep things level.

The Leafs then took an unlikely lead completely against the run of play with 6:35 left in the period when Marner was quickest to a loose puck in the slot and beat Rask with a backhand to the far post after Marchand couldn’t clear.

Toronto killed off its first penalty early in the third, and was then left fuming when David Backes elbowed Andersen in the mask, but was only assessed an offsetting roughing minor when Roman Polak came to his goalie’s defence.

The Leafs couldn’t connect on their third power play moments later, and Andersen stoned Sean Kuraly with under 10 minutes to go.