MEMBERTOU, N.S. – The Arsenault’s Fish Mart Western Red Wings lost 6-5 to Newfoundland in a shootout Thursday at the Don Johnson Memorial Cup.
The teams are now tied for second place after the Mount Pearl Jr. Blades were blanked by the front-running host team, the Kameron Jr. Miners, 3-0 Thursday night.
Western captain Chasse Gallant scored his third of the game to break a 4-4 tie 7:20 into the third period, but a mental error cost the Wings as Daniel Toope tied it with 1:29 left.
Gallant said the team will have to “buckle down and have a better mental focus” in order to hold leads for the remainder of the tournament.
The Red Wings started well, as Gallant scored on a rebound and Chandler Wood followed up 24 seconds later with a slap shot from the top of the face-off circle before the game was five-minutes old.
Colin O’Neil beat Luke Oliver five-hole after beating two Western defencemen off a tremendous rush down the ice to the cut the lead in half. Jared Ostroski scored a power-play goal off a bullet shot from the slot to tie it 2-2 heading for the first intermission.
The teams traded goals in the second period as Jason Gallant and Chasse Gallant tallied for Western, but Adam Nolan and James O’Brien answered for Mount Pearl.
“We had 35 shots on them but they use a 2-on-2 forechecking system, which is popular in Newfoundland, but rarely, if ever, used in the Maritimes, where a 1-2-2 system is used,” said Western head coach Nathan DesRoches.
Oliver made 21 saves in the loss while Mitch Rogers made 30 saves in the win.
Calvin McRae had two assists while Evan Millman, Alex Morrissey, Isaac Knox, Dillon Wall and Spencer Groom each added one.
