Eagles in win column

It’s the start the Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals were looking for.

Now four days into training camp, head coach Billy McGuigan has liked what he has seen.

“The intensity has been very high,” said McGuigan. “From my perspective, it’s been a great start to camp.

“The guys came in really good shape, and the young guys are really pushing the older guys. It’s been a real entertaining couple of days, and guys are really working hard.

“The pace of the games is higher than normal, there are good battles and there’s good competition.”

The Capitals, who have 35 players Summerside Western Capitals head coach Billy McGuigan yells instructions to his team.

in camp, are not expected to make the first round of cuts until the weekend.

“We’d like to see most guys in an exhibition game,” said McGuigan. “We want to get down to a workable number after the weekend

of around 28 or so.”

The Capitals open the exhibition schedule against the Pictou County Crushers at Credit Union Place’s Ice Pad on tonight at 7 p.m. The teams will meet in the back end of the home-and-home series in New Glasgow, Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

“We are trying to get some separation amongst the guys,” said McGuigan. “We are looking for guys to play well in the exhibition games and see where they fit against junior competition.”

McGuigan said a lot of the league’s teams have gone with “smaller camps” number-wise this year. The Caps will dress a few veterans tonight, but the roster will be mostly made up of rookies.

McGuigan said 18-year-old goaltender Daniel Thompson was expected to arrive in Summerside on Thursday. Thompson, a recent cut of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, was acquired from the Amherst Ramblers on Saturday.

McGuigan said the Caps have everyone in training camp they expected with the exception of former Charlottetown Islanders forward Sam Meisenheimer, who received a late

tryout with the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League. N.S., on

Brett Young drove in Avery Arsenault with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh as the Summerside Chrysler Dodge Eagles earned their first victory Thursday morning at the Canadian senior men’s fast pitch championship.

Arsenault led off the inning with a single and stole second, scoring on Young’s hit to centre field as the Eagles defeated Ontario’s Wiarton Nationals 3-2 in St. Croix, N.S. Arsenault went 1-for-1 with two walks and scored all three Eagles runs. Young was 2-for-4 with two RBI while Peter Reimer drove in the other run.

Jordan Costello and Matthew Dawson rounded out the Eagles five-hit attack. Blake Underwood went 2-for-3 with a run and two RBI to pace Wiarton’s offence.

Brady Woods went the distance for the victory. He allowed two runs on five hits while striking out 10 and walking one.

Dustin Veenhof, who allowed a run on three hits in 3 2/3 innings of relief, took the loss. Starter Caleb Keeshing allowed two runs on two hits. The Eagles, Prince Edward Island’s representative at the tournament, scored one run in the first and third innings while the Nationals scored one in the fourth and tied it in the sixth.