TRURO, N.S. — The Truro Bearcats gave the Summerside Western Capitals all they could handle Friday night at the RECC but still came out on the short end of a 5-3 decision.
The Caps (9 wins, 3 losses, 18 points) are first in the Maritime Junior Hockey League’s north division, while the Bearcats have gotten off to a slow start, with just two wins, seven losses and three overtime losses for seven points.
The teams went scoreless through the opening frame and exchanged goals in the second, with Zach Thususka tallying for Summerside and Carson Lanceleve replying for the Bearcats. The Truro goal was a buzzer beater, and milked every morsel of time left in the period. Lanceleve fired it home with no time showing on the clock, but the green light indicated it was indeed good.
The visitors took some of the wind out of Truro’s sails in the third, scoring twice with just a little over three minutes having transpired. Ed McNeil and Riley MacDougall did the damage.
Rather than fold up their tent though, the Bearcats stayed with it and were rewarded when Ben Higgins tallied from G Blackmore and Spencer Blackwell to make it a 3-2 game with about half a period to play.
The downside was that after Truro scored, a skirmish ensued and Higgins was sent off for roughing, while Blackmore was assessed a 10-minute misconduct.
With the powerplay, league-leading scorer Brodie MacArthur put the Caps up by two again finding the mark less than a minute later, but again the Bearcats fought back as Blackwell scored from Lanceleve at the 16:45 mark.
The Bearcats rolled the dice and pulled netminder Alec MacDonald with a face-off deep in the Summerside end and two and a half minutes on the clock. However, they were unable to control the puck and MacArthur picked it up and went over the blueline untouched scoring into the empty cage with 2:34 to play for the 5-3 final.
MacDonald faced 38 shots while the Bearcats mustered 32 against Caps crease-keeper Alec MacVicar.
The Bearcats return to action tonight (Saturday) when they host the Pictou County Weeks Crushers. Game time is 7 p.m. at the RECC.