Dalbrae centreman Nathan Crighton was the first to touch the puck – in the opening faceoff against Huskies-Eagles centre Mac MacLellan in last Tuesday’s Highland Region final – and the last to touch it when he scored the banner-winning goal in double overtime.
-by Bill Dunphy
A good hockey game.
Anytime you can leave one of our county rinks and say, “What a good hockey game,” then you just paid the best compliment possible to the two teams that just played.
That was the consensus of the majority who watched game two of the Highland Region Division 2 championship at the Al MacInnis Sports Centre last Tuesday – whether you were there to cheer on the victorious Dalbrae Dragons or the valiant CBHA/NDA/Cabot Huskies-Eagles.
The Dragons won the opener of the best-of-three series 4-3 on Monday of last week at the Cabot Trail Arena in Cheticamp, with Owen Campbell scoring in overtime.
On Tuesday in Port Hood, Dalbrae struck first at 7:28 of the first period. With a faceoff in the Huskies-Eagles zone after an icing, Rowen McDaniel won the draw with the puck going to Jack MacIver on a point-to-point pass to Malcolm MacInnis who shot the puck past screened goaltender Callum Courage.
The northerners tied it up in the second frame when Jace Bishop won a foot race along the left wing and buried a shot five-hole past Dalbrae goaltender Hayden Gillies. Nolan LeBlanc assisted on the goal which came at 6:35.
The 1-1 tie carried into the third period where the Huskies-Eagles killed a penalty and then took the lead at 9:39 on a goal by Jacob Hebb on a pass from Jace Whitty who found his linemate all alone on the long side of Gillies.
The Dragons took their time out after the goal and less than two minutes later, at 11:02, tied the game 2-2.
With defensive duo Donald Googoo and Owen Campbell working the point, Campbell feathered a nice point shot to the net where Ty Van den Hoogen snapped the rebound home off the initial save by Courage.
CBHA/NDA/Cabot took their time out at 14:37 but regulation time ran out and the game went to overtime.
The first five-minute overtime of four-on-four didn’t result in a goal so it went into a second OT of three-on-three.
Eleven seconds in and Campbell passed to Googoo who threaded the needle between two Huskies-Eagles to send Nathan Crighton in alone on Courage – going forehand, backhand, top shelf glove side in a highlight reel goal to give Dalbrae the series win.
“I love the space of three-on-three,” said Crighton. “I saw Donald carrying up the boards and tried to create an opening at the blueline. He made a great pass and I went forehand-backhand on Callum.”
Crighton said he practices the move with Courage as they both play on the Cape Breton West U18 AA Islanders team.
He said the first-round series against SAERC helped them not to panic when the Huskies-Eagles took the lead late in the third.
“We knew not to let up, to keep playing hard like we did in our series with the Saints, and it paid off.”
Stanley Cameron, who coaches the Dragons with Melissa Cummings and Quinn MacDonald, had nothing but praise for the team.
“They are a fabulous group of kids who are having fun playing hockey. Coming into this game I was worried about fatigue and playing against CBHA-NDA, you are playing against very good hockey players,” Cameron said.
As for winning another comeback overtime series, Cameron said, “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how things go your way or not go your way, but they went our way for us tonight.”
The Cape Breton West High School Hockey League has some league playoff games scheduled for this week.
Inverness was in Cheticamp on Monday night while SAERC was at Dalbrae. Last night (Tuesday) Dalbrae was in Richmond.
Two games are on tap for tonight, with the Huskies-Eagles at SAERC for 7 p.m. and Richmond at Inverness for a 7:30 p.m. start.
One other game scheduled has Richmond at Cheticamp on Thursday, 7:30 p.m.