Miners Fall To Penguins

  The Penguins needed only 25 seconds to hit the scoreboard first when Nick Doucet caught Ben Colford on the fly. The speedy centreman charged the Miners’ net on a 2 on 1 with Mitch Egli. The crafty Colford drew the Glace Bay defensemen with him before laying a perfect pass to Egli and the sure-handed Egli slipped it into the open side of Miners’ goaltender Scott MacDonald for a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later the Penguins’ Cole MacDonnell, cruising alone in the high slot, picked up a Connor Sullivan rebound, and the Penguin rookie slipped it 5-hole on MacDonald for a 2-0 lead. Call-up player Clay MacNeil also collected an assisted. The Penguins went up 3-0 on the power play when captain Marc Thibodeau redirected a Nick Doucet blast from the point. Jamie Sweet, who started the play, also picked up an assist.  

With just under 5 minutes to play, and the Penguins’ leading 3-0, the potential for a blow out was short lived when Glace Bay speedster Chris Ross picked up a Tyler Pyke pass from the corner and the shifty Ross beat Penguin goaltender Jason Ellis along the ice from 8 feet out. Three and a half minutes later the Miners’ struck again when Jordan Langlois carried deep into the Penguin zone and laid a perfect pass to Tyler Pyke who beat Ellis on the short side to get the Miners to within one at 3-2. Just past the mid-point of the period dependable Penguin defenseman Jamie Sweet made a long clearing, off the boards pass to Mitch Egli who raced in all alone to beat MacDonald on a deke to the open side preserving a 4-2 Penguin cushion.

The line of Ben Colford, Mitch Egli and Trevor Thorne were a going concern all night showing lots of jump, energy and the ability to pass on the fly. Just as effective, and showing lots of speed, was the Miners’ line of Chris Ross, Jordan Langlois and Tyler Pyke who tested Jason Ellis several times in the opening period.

The Penguins owned the shot clock at 19-16 in the opening twenty minutes.

In the second the teams played a scoreless middle period but not before Ellis was called upon to absolutely rob Glace Bay reliable forward Eugene Fraser from 3 feet out with a huge glove hand save. Then 30 seconds later Ellis stopped Tyler MacLeod on a breakaway and then with just 35 seconds remaining in the period Tyler Pyke had Ellis beaten but rung it off the crossbar. All this happened with less than 3 minutes remaining in the period.

The Penguins took a 4-2 lead despite trailing 33-28 on the shot clock after 40 minutes.

In the third both teams looked a little weary and content to play a little more cautious. With just 5 minutes remaining the Penguins’ ran into penalty problems big time. First, a 5-minute hitting-from-behind penalty then a 2-minute cross-checking penalty with 1:37 showing on the clock the Miners opted to pull MacDonald in favour of a 6^th attacker. With the white shirts out numbering the red shirts 6 to 3 the Miners continued to apply unrelenting pressure until veteran forward RJ Barrett was finally able to get one past Ellis and close to gap to 4-3 with 29 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock. Jordan Langlois and Andrew MacPhee picked up the assists.

The Miners continued to press until Penguin captain Marc Thibodeau picked up a loose puck just outside his blue line and with lots of time deposited it dead centre in a vacant Glace Bay net from 70 feet out.

Jason Ellis handled 45 of 48 shots for the win while Scott MacDonald faced 40 shots in a losing cause.