Jacks split weekend games, remain in fifth place
PLAYING THE TEAMS THAT THEY are sandwiched in between in the standings, the Wellesley Applejacks came away last weekend with a 4-1 win at home against the Norwich Merchants and a 4-2 loss on the road to the Hespeler Shamrocks.
At home on Saturday, the Jacks, who now trail Norwich by three points – but with two games in hand – took a 2-0 lead just over eight minutes into the first period. Opening the scoring for the Jacks was Eric Lacey, who potted his second of the season at 4:11, with an assist going to Carson Wickie. Connor Doerbecker’s
11th exactly four minutes later put the home side up by two. Assists went to Isiah Katsube and Owen O’Donnell.
Norwich would get the lone goal of the middle frame on Brady Marr’s third of the season, an unassisted effort. The game would remain close until the dying moments when the Jacks made the most of a two-man advantage as Doerbecker got his second of the game (Austin Stemmler, Dimitri Eleftheriadis) at 18:57. With his team still on the powerplay, Katsbue would add an empty-netter with just 26 seconds left to round out the scoring.
The Jacks played sound defensively on Saturday, allowing the Merchants just 16 shots. Starter
Owen Neomytka made seven saves before being replaced by Tyson Gustaw who stopped eight of nine. Norwich starter Tanner Richardson stopped 18 of 21 shots.
Norwich went 0-6 on the powerplay, while the hosts went 2-4.
A quick turnaround was not to the Jacks’ favour, as their Sunday afternoon start came less than 24 hours later.
After taking a 1-0 lead into the second, Hespeler padded the lead to 3-0 with two quick goals before the period was a minute old. Boden White notched his 19th of the year assisted by Jack Restauri. It would only take eight seconds for Justin Goerge (Restauri, White) to score what would eventually be the game winner.
The Jacks got on the board at 4:54 with a power-play goal from Doerbecker, assisted by Stemmler. However, a shorthanded goal at 15:19 restored the Shamrocks’ three-goal lead.
The final frame saw the lone goal, on another powerplay, come off the stick of Wickie, (O’Donnell, Logan Crans) at 13:14, however any hope for a comeback ended there.
Neomytka stopped 23 of 27 in a losing effort, while David Hanley made 22 saves. Wellesley was 2-6 with the extra man, while the home side was scoreless on five opportunities. Despite the loss, the Jacks are still a sizeable nine points ahead of the Shamrocks in the PJHL’s South Doherty Division standings.
The Jacks (15-18-1) have three straight home games upcoming as they need to make up for postponements earlier in the season. Friday, they host Hespeler (10-23-2) at 8:30 p.m. They face the New Hamburg Firebirds (27-7-2) the next night and host the Tavistock Braves (21-11-1-2) on Tuesday, with both games starting at 7:30 p.m.