Scotians put the ’Dogs out
The Pictou County Junior Scotians finally got a home playoff win.
Friday night’s 7-0 victory over the Antigonish Bulldogs in Game 6 of their Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League series sent them on to the next round where they will play the Glace Bay Miners, who owned the league’s best regular-season record.
After a close-checking first period with very few scoring opportunities, the Scotians started to impose their will on Antigonish, enjoying the majority of puck possession in the second period and getting the goals the hard way: by driving to the net.
“Our special teams were important,” said coach Al Whidden.
“We killed off a couple of penalties in the first period and scored some power play goals in the second.”
Ethan Snell got a generous rebound on the power play and knocked in a five-footer. 1-0. Will Kelly out-waited Antigonish goalie Charles Jensen and found himself with a wide-open net. 2-0.
Kale Mason, parked in front of the Bulldogs’ net on the power play and paying a price for it, was hacked several times by the Antigonish keeper and another defender. He got the last laugh when he banged in a loose puck. It was 3-0 and the Scotians would take that lead to the second intermission.
“Kale is not normally on the power play, but we were down some bodies and so we tried him there. And it worked,” Whidden said.
Gaetan Tremblay scored two
goals 12 seconds apart early in the third to put the game away and Brendon Duff and Ryan MacDonald also tallied while Brandon MacDonald kept the Scotians’ net clean to get the shutout.
“We are basically down to four (defencemen) and Brandon’s playing great in nets for us,” Whidden said.