Off to Atlantics
The Pictou County Scotians are Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League champs
Next stop for the Junior B Scotians: Fredericton.
Their 8-5 win over the Liverpool Privateers on Friday not only clinched the franchise’s first-ever Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League title, the Scotians booked a spot in the Don Johnson Memorial Cup Atlantic championship, to be held in the New Brunswick capital starting April 25.
“It’s a crazy feeling, to finally do it in my last year,” said Riley Cameron, the playoff MVP who powered the Scotians with three goals and an assist on Friday.
“I don’t think many people saw us winning the league.”
In front of about 1,700 fans at the Pictou County Wellness Centre, the teams were tied with 12 minutes to go when the game turned; Ryan MacDonald gathered in a loose puck near the Scotians blue line, creating a two-on-one with Jared Livingstone. MacDonald slid a pass across to Livingstone and it was 6-5.
The Scotians then got a huge gift; as Pictou County celebrated their lead, Liverpool’s Connor McDougall took a cross-checking penalty and Cameron made the Privateers pay dearly for it, finding time and space in front of the Liverpool net and burying his 11th goal of the post-season.
It was 7-5 for the Scotians, and an empty-netter from Austin Donlevy sealed it. It was his second goal of the night.
Donlevy had tied the backand-forth game in the second period when the big defenceman crashed the net and jammed the puck behind goaltender Cory Peterson. Ethan Snell and Blair Dewtie also scored for Pictou County. McDougall had two goals for Liverpool.
“We knew the potential of this team if we got everybody together. The veterans played amazing, and those rookies kept getting better, the eight or 10 or whatever we have,” said coach Al Whidden.
“We’ve done it all playoffs. We’ve been down in games and keep battling back.”
The Scotians’ playoff train got rolling back in late February after they reached the playoffs in the final game of the regular season; they eliminated the Antigonish Bulldogs in six in their opening series, went to Glace Bay for a Game 7 and beat the juggernaut Miners, before chugging into their championship series against Liverpool, confident, determined and playing for each other.
And playing for a trip to Fredericton.
“We’ve been trying to keep it out of our minds,” Whidden said, when asked if he’d given much though to the Don Johnson Memorial Cup, commonly referred to as the DoJo.
“When you look ahead, sometimes you don‘t get there.”
Cameron and Jacob Pentz shared the playoff scoring lead with 26 points each.
“It’s kind of surreal, I can’t believe we did it,” said Scotians’ captain Brendon Duff, who left the game in the second period with what looked like a nasty leg injury, but soon returned.
“We’re gonna have fun tonight, and when we’re done with that, we’ll think about the DoJo.”
It wasn’t just a night for the players and coaches; the Scotians are run by a dedicated board of directors tasked with a difficult job faced by any junior hockey team: keeping the franchise going from season to season.
”Most of this board’s been here for 10 to 15 years,” said governor Walter Smith. “We couldn’t be prouder. We were the underdogs in every series, and they just came out and played hard. I couldn’t be prouder of this team, the whole organization. We deserved this.”