South West Storm down 2-0 in semifinals
The South West Storm are trailing the Sackville Knights 2-0 in best-of-five semifinal action in the Nova Scotia Regional Junior Hockey League.
The Storm advanced to the semifinals after rebounding from a 2-1 series deficit to win their best-of-five quarter-final series against the Spryfield Attack 3-2.
The Storm wrapped up the series on home ice on March 10, posting a 6-1 win. Zachary D’Arcy led the Storm in that series wrap with two goals and two assists. Brady Nickerson also had a pair of markers and one assist. Ollie Tipton and Tylan Foster each had one goal, while JJ MacPhee notched two assists.
They also won game four in Spryfield on March 9, doubling the Attack 4-2. Zachary D’Arcy had one goal and an assist, with single markers from Riley Hemeon, JJ MacPhee and Brady Nickerson.
The team showed a lot of character, stuck to the plan and “played our best hockey at the right time” to win the series, said Head Coach Andrew Holland.
The semifinal series opened in Sackville on March 15 and 16. The Knights edged the Storm 4-3 in game one and posted a 3-2 double overtime win in game two.
The series moves to the Sandy Wickens Memorial Arena for a March 23 face-off at 7 p.m. Game four if necessary is slated for March 24 at 2:30 p.m. Game five if necessary is slotted for March 25 in Sackville at 8 p.m.
Going into the series, Holland predicted the series would be close, expecting it to be "a real hard series" between the teams, he said.
While the Storm won two of the three games against the Knights in the regular season, Sackville finished a point ahead of the Storm in the regular season standings. “All the games were close,” said Holland.
The Eastern Shore Thunder are meeting the East
Hants Ryson Construction Penguins in the other semifinal series.
The Storm are the twotime defending league champs as well as the 2023 Maritime Junior C champions.
“We’re hoping for a threepeat,” said Holland. “We’ll see,” he said, adding the team hopes to see lots of fans at the arena supporting the team. “Hopefully we’ll do our best to entertain them and win some games."