PICTOU COUNTY – Coming up short on Thursday, the bantam AA Crushers felt they had what it took to split their first two days of the Bantam Memorial Tournament at the Pictou County Wellness Centre.
They would score 13:57 into the first period to open the scoring, but it was their only lead of the game as the Northside Vikings bounced back scoring three unanswered goals en route to an eventual 4-3 victory.
Ben McDow, Bailey Fraser and Tim Shea scored for the Crushers. Glenn McInnis, Ian MacNeil, Curtis Knott and Ryan Lettice answered for the Vikings.
In goal Steven Conway took the loss, while Evan Jardine picked up the victory.
After the game Crushers head coach Mike O’Hearn said he felt his team played well and deserved to win the game.
“They just got a couple breaks and we didn’t,” he said. “We played a great hockey game, but we just didn’t come out on top.”
Tomorrow the team plays their final game of the round-robin portion of the Bantam Memorial Tournament against West Hants, who are also 0-2. O’Hearn said the team will stick to the same game plan that they set for Friday.
“Well we’ll go with the same game plan and hopefully we’ll get the bounces,” said O’Hearn. “We’ll try to hit more, move the puck better and hopefully do all the little things right across the ice. We’re going to put the pucks towards the net more and hopefully get a couple goals.”
When asked about the play of Conway and Matthew Murray in goal through two games he had no concerns saying goaltending is the strength of their team and has been all year.
Their game on Saturday against West Hants is at 3:30 p.m., which will determine if the team moves on and where they will fall for crossovers on Sunday.
