Crushers look to even MHL playoff series
Game 4 goes Wednesday in Amherst
“There is no education like adversity,” said 19th century writer and politician Benjamin Disraeli.
The Pictou County Crushers, facing the prospect of digging themselves a big hole in their playoff series against the Amherst Ramblers, hope they are quick studies.
“This time of year, you’re not trying to build character, you’re trying to reveal it,” coach Doug Doull said. “And there’s a huge difference.”
Falling behind in a playoff series, he said, “is a big part of that.”
The Crushers will head to Amherst Stadium Wednesday, intent on pulling even in the best-of-seven playoff tilt with the Ramblers, whose 4-3 win in Monday’s Game 3 at the Pictou County Wellness Centre has given Amherst an opportunity to take a firm grip on the Maritime Hockey League series.
“It’s not a situation we wanted to be in,” said Benji Curtis on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’ve been down before – you just have to roll with the punches.”
The Crushers outshot (40-28) and out-chanced Amherst in Game 3, but Daryl MacCallum came up with some big saves in the Ramblers’ net and the Ramblers got two goals with the man advantage while limiting the Crushers’ power play, which operated at better than a 30 per cent clip in the regular season.
Chad Bannister had two goals for Amherst, Julian Makary and Jordan King also scored as the Ramblers took a 4-2 lead into the late stages of the game. A Michael Dill tally with 3:47 remaining pulled the Crushers to within one, but they would get no closer.
“Daryl is playing lights out for us right now and he was a major factor in that game,” Ramblers coach Jeff LeBlanc told the Amherst News on Monday.
Alexis Roy and Curtis also had goals for Pictou County, who went into the series as the favourite – they had the MHL’s best record in the regular season and won five of six against Amherst.
“We just need to stick with what’s been successful,” said Curtis. “We’ve had our chances. There’s a few things that could have went our way, but that works both ways.”
Game 4 will be Friday night in Antigonish, at the Keating Millennium Centre.