Dalbrae Dragons forward Bentley Cameron moves the puck out of his end while SAERC Saints forward Liam Taylor closes in to meet him during Highland Region Division 2 semifinal action in Port Hood on Friday.
-by Bill Dunphy
Both the Dalbrae Dragons and the Cabot/CBHA/NDA Huskies-Eagles relished their underdog roles in the Highland Region Division 2 playoffs – both teams picking off the Cape Breton West High School Hockey League leaders.
The Dragons and Huskies-Eagles both benefitted from a queer rule in their ‘best-of-three’ playdown series.
Instead of the traditional best-of-three, which would require a third game if the series was tied 1-1, the new rule calls for an ‘overtime’ immediately after completion of the second game to determine the series winner. Teams play five minutes of four-on-four, and if no one scores, then five minutes of three-on-three, and if there’s still no goal, the ‘game’ goes to a shootout.
In the Dalbrae Dragons, who finished fourth in the league with a 4-0-8-0 record (wins-OT wins-losses-OT losses), faced the first-place SAERC Saints (11-1-1-1) in playdowns.
Game one, at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre, was an old-fashioned goaltenders duel between Dalbrae’s Hayden Gillies and SAERC’s Brooke Wadden, each going save-for-save until 33 seconds left in the third period when Owen Campbell scored the game-winner on a play with Jayden Cameron and Ethan Gillis.
With their backs now against the wall, the Saints dominated the Dragons in game two, winning 5-0 at the Al MacInnis Sports Centre on Friday.
Owen Burns won a puck battle behind Gillies’ net and fed Masen MacPherson for a tuck-in at the side of the net to give the Saints a 1-0 lead at 9:32 of the first period.
The eventual game-winning goal came with 43 seconds left in the first with Keiran Madden scoring off a faceoff in the Dalbrae zone, assisted by Gunner Brown.
MacPherson scored an unassisted goal in the second period to put the Saints up 3-0 at the break.
In the third, Burns scored on a set-up by Madden and Madden mad it 5-0 two minutes later, assisted by Liam Taylor and Duncan Scott.
With the game in hand and knowing what was coming next, both teams seemed content to play out the third period without a whole lot of intensity.
The first ‘overtime’ of four-on-four hockey was scoreless, though SAERC picked up a minor penalty at 4:07, which carried over into the second ‘overtime’ of three-on-three.
Dalbrae played the first 67 seconds at four-on-three, which became four-on-four when the penalized player stepped on the ice, until the first whistle.
Now playing three-on-three, Dalbrae D-man Donald Gillis, in his own end, head-manned the puck to Nathan Crighton who went end-to-end, finishing with a backhander past Wadden at 2:23 to give the Dragons a 1-0 win and the series victory.
The playdown series between the third-place Huskies-Eagles (7-0-2-1) and the second-place Richmond Hurricane (9-1-3-0) was equally wild.
Richmond won the first game in Louisdale 3-1.
Jacob Hebb, on a powerplay with Jace Bishop, gave the Huskies-Eagles a 1-0 lead in the first period.
However Richmond scored three in the third for the win.
Game two, at the Cabot Trail Arena in Cheticamp on Friday, saw Jayden Aucoin score at 11:02 of the third period, on a set-up by Nolan LeBlanc, to give the Huskies-Eagles a 1-0 win to tie the series.
Going into four-on-four ‘overtime,’ Avery Evers took a pass from Hebb and scored the series winner at 2:56 to sideline the Hurricane.
Huskies-Eagles goaltender Callum Courage had the shutouts.
The Dalbrae and Cabot/CBHA/NDA will now play a real best-of-three series to determine the Highland Region Division 2 champion, but both teams advance to provincials.
The Highland Region is designated to host the School Sport Nova Scotia D2 provincial tournament on March 27-29, but it was not known at press time if it will go to the Highland Region winner or an alternate site.