Comeback complete
Locals cap series comeback with OT win in Game 7
The Weeks Major Midgets are moving on in the Nova Scotia league playoffs after erasing a 3-0 series deficit
Maybe there is something to the ‘team of destiny’ thing.
Six minutes into sudden death overtime on Wednesday night in front of a raucous crowd at Cole Harbour Place, Gavin Hart was in the Cole Harbour Wolfpack zone when an errant puck went right to him.
He saw an opening on the short side, fired away and the Pictou County bench exploded.
“To score that goal was just an unbelievable feeling. I was speechless,” said the Weeks Major Midgets centre.
“That’s the word I have for it: speechless.”
His goal not only sent his team to the next round of the playoffs, it capped a comeback that defied realistic expectations and the law of averages: on Sunday morning, Pictou County woke up trailing 3-0 in the series, facing the prospect of needing to win four games in as many days or their season would be over.
After their dramatic 3-2 on Wednesday in Cole Harbour, they’re moving on to the next round and the Cape Breton West Islanders.
“It wasn’t looking too great,” after Game 3, Hart admitted, “but I know our guys had a lot of belief.”
G Blackmore scored two power play goals in regulation for Weeks – one of which tied the game midway through the third period – as Weeks walked the overtime tightrope for the second straight game and lived to tell about it.
“I never felt like, ‘let’s get this over with and we’ll re-set for next year,’” said coach Kyle MacLennan.
“What they did was pretty special.”
The Wolfpack had Pictou County somewhat on their heels in the OT session, seizing the momentum to create some good scoring chances.
In a split second, Hart reversed the momentum in a huge, playoff-changing way.
“It was an exciting moment to score a goal like that,” said the Bible Hill, Colchester County resident.
Weeks will start their series against Cape Breton West with games Saturday and Sunday in Cape Breton.
Notes According to MacLennan
no team in Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League history had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series.
G Blackmore and Kevin
Mason have been money in the playoffs: Blackmore had eight goals and six assists in the series against Cole Harbour, Mason had six goals and eight assists.
The Major Midgets could
not get a bus to transport them to Cole Harbour for Game 5 of the series on Monday, so they all piled into cars and SUVs to make the trip down the 104. It would be Pictou County’s first win in Cole Harbour since October 2011.
“When Game 7 hit,” said coach MacLennan, “we said, ‘We’re not taking the bus. We are driving again. ’”
It was the first playoff series
win for Weeks in five years.