Looking for some ‘puck luck’

Crushers, Caps to collide as Pictou County looks to add to winning column

Pictou County may be at the bottom of the South Division standings and have the MHL’s worst record, but the junior A Crushers are far from buried.

The Crushers are just a single point behind the Valley Wildcats and six behind the South Shore Lumberjacks – with 35 games to go in the season – as they head into action this week.

“We’ve dug ourselves a little hole here, but it’s nothing we can’t dig ourselves out of,” said veteran forward Barrett Dachyshyn, whose team finally got a win last week after going 43 days without one.

“Winning is like a drug – once you do it once, you want to keep doing it.”

Tough competition ahead

A buzzkill might not be far

away: the next three games are a brutal stretch if the Crushers want to maintain that happy feeling.

The Crushers, who halted a 13-game winless skid with a 5-4 win over the Lumberjacks Oct. 26, first must deal with the Summerside Western Capitals - a goal-scoring juggernaut that owns the best record in the Maritime Hockey League (12 wins in 15 games) - as they head into the Nov. 1 game at the Pictou County Wellness Centre at 7 p.m.

Pictou County then plays the Bearcats in Truro on Nov. 3, and have a Nov. 6 home game against the division-leading Yarmouth Mariners.

Against South Shore, Isaac Chapman had two goals for Pictou County, with Evan Gallant, Evan MacLennan and Dachyshyn also scoring in the 5-4 win as the Lumberjacks tried to fight back from a 5-2 deficit. In the third period, the ’Jacks scored two quick ones to get close and, with a Crushers in the penalty box in the final two minutes, poured on the pressure trying to get the equalizer.

“The last two minutes were pretty stressful,” Gallant said of the game in Lunenburg.

“We realized we had to stop the curse and everybody just beared down. I think it’s a first step and, hopefully, there’s a lot more to come. We’ve had a lot of unlucky stuff happen on the ice – it doesn’t seem like the puck luck has been on our side at times.”

At home against the Miramichi Timberwolves Oct. 25, Aiden Hickey, Jacob Hickey, Chad Wilson and Mason scored for the Crushers, who rebounded from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game before the T-Wolves won it late in a 6-4 final.