Bearcats visiting Wildcats
Truro trying to find its game after pair of home-ice losses
TRURO, N.S. – Seeking just their third win of the season, the Truro Bearcats hit the road to Berwick on Friday for a Maritime Junior Hockey League game against the Valley Wildcats.
It’s Truro’s lone weekend game and comes after a pair of homeice losses last week to the Summerside Western Capitals and Pictou County Crushers.
The Bearcats will be without defenceman Dell Welton, who has been called up by the Charlottetown Islanders Quebec major junior league team for games in Blainville-boisbriand on Thursday, Rouyn-noranda on Saturday and Val-d’or Sunday.
Truro heads to the Valley with a 2-7-0-4 record and sits in fifth place in the Eastlink South Division, just two points ahead of the Wildcats (3-10-0-0).
CRUSHERS 8, BEARCATS 7 (SO)
Pictou County got out to a quick start, scoring twice before the game was halfway through the opening period. The Bearcats countered with two of their own, leaving the teams deadlocked at two after the opening frame.
In the second, it was much of the same as each team found the mark three times to make it 5-5 after 40 minutes. Two more each in the third period sent them to overtime at 7-7.
With nothing settled there, it was on to a shootout, where Sullivan Sparkes was the only one to score of six shooters and the Crushers got the nod for the win. Ben Higgins was top gun for Truro, scoring three times – a goal in each period – and adding an assist for good measure. Spencer Blackwell had a goal and three helpers, all on Higgins’s goals, and Carson Lanceleve picked up three assists, as well. Lucas Parsons, Dell Welton and Zak Yewchuk accounted for the other Bearcat goals.
Shots on goal were 37-36, in favour of the Crushers. Despite the high totals, just one of the 14 regulation-time goals came on the power play, scored by Pictou in the second.
The Bearcats gave the Capitals all they could handle Friday night at the RECC but still came out on the short end.
The teams went scoreless through the opening frame and exchanged goals in the second, with Zach Thususka tallying for Summerside and Lanceleve replying for the Bearcats. The Truro goal was a buzzer-beater, and milked every morsel of time left in the period. Lanceleve fired it home with no time showing on the clock, but the green light indicated it was indeed good.
The visitors took some of the wind out of Truro’s sails in the third, scoring twice with just a little over three minutes having transpired. Ed Mcneil and Riley Macdougall did the damage.
Rather than fold up their tent though, the Bearcats stayed with it and were rewarded when Higgins tallied to make it a 3-2 game with about half a period to play. The downside was that after Truro scored, a skirmish ensued and Higgins was sent off for roughing, while Blackmore was assessed a 10-minute misconduct.
With the powerplay, leagueleading scorer Brodie Macarthur put the Caps up by two again, finding the mark less than a minute later, but again the Bearcats fought back as Blackwell scored from Lanceleve at the 16:45 mark.
The Bearcats pulled netminder Alec Macdonald with a face-off deep in the Summerside end and two and a half minutes on the clock. However, they were unable to control the puck and Macarthur picked it up and went over the blueline untouched, scoring into the empty cage with 2:34 to play for the 5-3 final.
Macdonald faced 38 shots while the Bearcats mustered 32 against Caps crease-keeper Alec Macvicar.