TRURO - Leading the majority of the game Saturday night against the Truro Bearcats, the Weeks Crushers wound up losing 5-3. Captain Nick Parker said the team got into late penalty trouble causing the momentum to shift.
“Play was pretty even, but in the third we got into some penalty trouble and we killed off some, but you could tell from them controlling the play that the momentum was changing,” said Parker. “They got a late power play and scored on that, which deflated us some and then they got another goal (at 18:44), which made it tough to come back late.”
Parker said he felt the game was one of their best defensive games of the season. He said aside from the loss that he felt it was a good game on their part and although they allowed 49 shots on goal that there weren’t as many high quality chances.
“Aside from the loss I thought it was a pretty good game on our part,” said Parker. “Not to take anything away from (Brandon) Thibeau, because he played a great game, but we kept them to quite a few perimeter shots. On their power plays (six) they got lots of shots, but Thibeau was always there to make the save on their quality chances.”
Since the break the Crushers are 5-2, with their only divisional matchup loss being against Truro on Saturday. Parker said the renewed confidence in the locker room started with their game against Yarmouth on Jan. 10 at home.
“Going in we knew it was going to be a tough game and then we went out and had a great start,” he said. “You could feel the momentum in the room and on the bench changing. The guys got confidence finally and I felt for the first time this year that we really had confidence. We’re going into games feeling we can win and play teams for a full 60 minutes. I think the biggest part of that is the confidence everyone has.”
Scoring for the Crushers on Saturday were Mitchell Deruelle, Evan MacEachern and Garrett Holmes. Thibeau made 45 saves in the Crushers loss.
