Crushers, Ramblers meet tonight at PCWC
The Junior A Crushers are banged up and have had trouble scoring, but the Amherst Ramblers likely don’t care.
“I don’t suppose they would,” coach Doug Doull said before a practice Wednesday.
“They have a talented team, an older squad, but I’m not too concerned right now with what everybody else around the league is doing. Our focus is on us and we’re not using (injuries) as an excuse.”
The Ramblers make their first trip of the season to the Pictou County Wellness Centre on Thursday with Crushers Marc Gagnon, Quinten Johnson and Jake Martin out of the lineup due to injury, combined with the recent departure of forward Nick Fewer.
The combination of Donovan Rehill, Kevin Mason and Jake Stewart, according to coach Doug Doull, was the team’s best line in a 2-1 victory over the Miramichi Timberwolves last weekend: Stewart scored and helped set up Mason’s late-game goal that halted a three-game losing streak and Rehill might have played his best game as a Crusher, Doull added.
“He played a big man’s game,” Doull said of his veteran winger, listed at 6’4, 220 pounds.
“He won tough battles, he loosened up pucks. He’s got to be like a big brother on that line.”
Rehill, one of the few 20-yearold Crushers and an assistant captain, said part of his role is to play physical and “and make some space for (his younger linemates), so they can be offensive threats.”
The Ramblers are four games over .500 but only three points above Pictou County in the standings.
“We definitely have to come out right off the bat and play a 60-minute game,” Rehill said. “Being physical will lead to more opportunities for us.”
Notes:
Jon Vandermolen, who suffered an upper-body injury against the Campbellton Tigers, should play on Thursday.
With a win against the Ramblers, the Crushers would not only climb over the Truro Bearcats in the South Division standings, they’d pull to within a single point (if they win in regulation) of third-place Amherst.
Three weeks away from the Pictou County Wellness Centre hasn’t helped, but Crushers fans haven’t seen their team win at home since late September (a 9-1 win over Campbellton).
The Crushers are at the South Shore Lumberjacks on Friday.