Valley Maples Leafs off to a strong start

It was a clash of the 3-1-0 Valley Maple Leafs versus the 4-1-0 Port Hawkesbury Strait Pirates Oct. 5 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Strait after the Leafs won their third of the season 6-3 over the Brookfield Elks.

Less than three minutes into the Brookfield game the Elks, now 0-4-0, scored before the Leafs Dawson MacPhail tied the game at 1-1 with just 1:12 remaining in the first.

The Leafs were not finished as they went on to score three unanswered goals in the second period and two more 12 seconds apart before the third period was two minutes old to take a commanding 6-1 lead.

The Elks bounced back with a pair of goals to make the final 6-3. The five unanswered goals for the Leafs were tallied by Ethan Rendell-Watson, who scored three of them for his fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the season in four games.

Other scorers were Isaac Bridge and the team’s top point getter after four games, Nathan Clarke, who has registered three goals and seven assists for 10 points in four games.

The Valley barely outshot the Elks 30-27, with the Elks holding an 11-6 advantage in the third period, which was a period of unrest after seven minors being assessed in the opening two periods for 14 total penalty minutes.

The third saw 116 penalty minutes assessed, including four misconducts, four game misconducts and four major penalties for fighting.

The Friday night game in the Strait marked the final one on the road prior to their home opener against the expansion Eskasoni Eagles at 7:30 p.m. Oct 19.

In an earlier game Oct 5, the Maple Leafs dropped the Cole Harbour Colts 6-3.

The Leafs were all over the Colts, outshooting them by a wide margin Oct. 5in Cole Harbour as they played an exceptionally strong second period outscoring the Colts 3-1 and outshooting them 21-10 to win the game while outshooting Cole Harbour 54-31.

The Colts on the power-play made it 1–0 before Kyle Keddy replied with a power-play marker for the Leafs to tie the game at 1-1 after twenty minutes.

Valley held an 18-8 shots advantage in the opening period. In the second period, the Colts scored to go ahead 2-1 before the Valley exploded for three goals, another power-play marker, this time from Taylor Brown and then the Leafs, with less than two minutes to play in the middle frame, connected for a pair of goals, one from Ethan Rendell-Watson with 1:53 left and then Isaac Bridge with only 18 seconds remaining in the second made it 4-2 Leafs.

The Leafs came out of the gates in the third period with Bridge scoring his second of the night to go along with an assist, giving him four goals in three games.

Ben Dixon made it 6-2 Leafs before the Colts scored to make the final 6-3.

James Thomas Breton stopped 28 of 31 shots for a .903 save percentage on the game.