The Pictou County Wonder Auto Bantam AA Crushers got a taste of their own medicine this weekend after dropping two games to the visiting Bedford Blues.
Pictou County had gone 8-1 in league play up to last weekend, but have lost three straight exhibition games to metro Halifax teams in the past two weeks. Pictou County had a bye in this weekend’s schedule and played host to Bedford to test their mettle against metro's top team.
In game one at the Trenton arena on Sunday, the Crushers faced a fast and skilled squad who are tops in their league in Halifax. Bedford scored at eight minutes of the first.
In the second frame, Pictou County continued to wheel and kept the Blues hemmed in their own end for the first half of the second. At 9:33, Crusher Tommy Hayman cashed in and tied things on a rebound in the slot from Alex Halliday, who had gotten a feed in front from Scott Graham. The teams went to their rooms at the intermission deadlocked at one with Pictou County having the edge in puck possession and scoring chances. Early in the third Bedford struck to take the lead just as a Crusher penalty was expiring. The county boys pressed hard to tie but couldn't solve Bedford goalie Olaf Schmidt who was outstanding in the nets. The Crushers got burned at the nine-minute mark of the third when the Blues struck again to go up 3-1. 
"Overall I was extremely pleased with our intensity and team play. The score certainly wasn't indicative of the calibre of the game,” said coach Barry Hayman.
In game two in Westville on Sunday, the Pictou County boys felt confident going in, but suffered a bit of a hit when their captain and one of their leading offensive players, Cody Johnston broke a skate blade during the warm-up and had to wait for a second set of skates before being able to compete. The Crushers did not allow the distraction to hamper their play though and gave a solid effort early on limiting the visitors’ chances.
It was Bedford, however, who got on the board with the first two goals, one at 9:13 and the other at 4:19 of the first period. The Crushers got one back at 2:32 when Brett Connors sniped a rebound off a Scott Graham shot in slot. Luke Grant added an assist in just his second game back from a four-week hiatus due to injury.
Bedford added their fourth goal at 4:02 of the second period which seemed to open the flood gates. The Crushers were called for a trip and a penalty shot was awarded to Bedford less than a minute later. The end result left Pictou County down 5-1 at the intermission.
The Crushers got into severe penalty trouble in the third, getting the call on five minors allowing the Blues to take total control of the game. They added two more to make it 7-1 before the final buzzer. The Crushers were out shot in the game 34 to 19.
Coach Barry Hayman said he was disappointed with the loss. "
After the way we played yesterday, I really felt the boys would come out with a strong game today. We took needless penalties and we didn't shoot the puck. Bottom line is, we can compete with any of these teams but we have to move our feet, we need to take the body and we must get pucks to the net. We didn't do that today and this is the result."