SUMMERSIDE – The Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals are moving on in the MHL (Maritime Junior Hockey League) playoffs.
The Capitals pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Campbellton Tigers on Friday night to win the best-of-seven Eastlink North Division semifinal series in five games. The Capitals will now meet the regular-season-champion Edmundston Blizzard in the best-of-seven divisional final, which is expected to start late next week or weekend in Edmundston, N.B. The Blizzard swept the Miramichi Timberwolves in the other division semifinal.
“You want to get series over as quickly as possible if you are going to win them,” said Caps head coach Billy McGuigan. “We are over in five, they (Blizzard) are over in four. Now it’s time to move on and think about Edmundston.”
Keeps Caps in game
A very big reason the Caps are moving on is the play of goaltender Alex Bishop, who held his team in the game and prevented the Tigers from opening up a wide lead in the first 20 minutes. In the first period alone, Bishop stopped 15 of 16 shots, including three point-blank saves, a breakaway stop on Dylan Coffey and denied Otis Raphael, who had a wide-open net, with a highlight-reel save diving to his right with less than a minute to go before the first intermission to prevent the Tigers from opening up a two-goal lead.
“(Coffey) pulled it back pretty quick and tried to go upstairs,” explained Bishop, whose outstanding saves drew loud applauses on a couple of occasions from the announced crowd of 1,818 fans at Eastlink Arena. “I was nervous he might beat me there, but I got a piece of it and knocked it into the corner.”
And for the save off Raphael?
“I would love to say that was a skill save, but it was all luck,” said a smiling Bishop. “The rebound went off my pad through a screen, and it was sitting right there. (Raphael) kind of hesitated, I just put my paddle out and luckily, I got a piece of it. I got kind of lucky there, but a save is a save.”
Since coming off the bench in the first period of Game 1, Bishop’s numbers are outstanding – a 4-0 (won-lost) record, one shutout, a microscopic 1.14 goals-against average and he stopped 169 of 174 shots for an unheard of .970 save percentage.
“It was mostly focus,” said Bishop. “I just tried to prepare for the game the way I did the other ones.”
Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals forward Austin Taylor screens Campbellton Tigers goaltender Tristan Gray as this shot just missed the corner of the net. The Capitals edged the Tigers 2-1 to win the best-of-seven Eastlink North Division semifinal series in the MHL (Maritime Junior Hockey League) 4-1. The Caps will now face the Edmundston Blizzard in the division final.
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Opens scoring
Francis Thibeault’s shot through heavy traffic in front was the only shot to beat Bishop. That goal came at 17:05 of the first period, and gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
A different-looking Caps’ team, which was outshot 16-4 in the opening 20 minutes, dominated the middle frame. The Caps held a 24-7 shots-on-goal advantage, and scored the only two goals to take a 2-1 lead into what would be a scoreless third period.
Kallum Muirhead, who was set up by Chris Chaddock and Sebastien Cormier, tied the game for the Capitals at 11:58 as he cut in off the right wing and made no mistake firing the puck past Tigers goaltender Tristan Gray on the stick side. TJ Shea scored what proved to be the series-clinching goal on the power play at 18:34. Brodie MacArthur, who has now recorded at least one point in 41 straight games, and Jesse Annear set up the goal.
“You don’t want a team like that to hang around, but they did, and they did a great job of it,” said McGuigan. “Once Muirhead got that pass from Chaddy and it was in the back of the net, and we got the power-play goal from TJ, it gave us the momentum to carry on.”
The Capitals, despite being outshot 14-11 in the third period, preserved the one-goal lead.
“We are a pretty resilient bunch,” said the 20-year-old Bishop, who is from Richmond Hill, Ont. “That’s playoff hockey, winning low-scoring, one-goal games. It helps having a very complete team.”
McGuigan attributed the Caps’ slow start to a bit of nervousness and thinking it might be easier than what it was.
“Our compete level had to come up,” said McGuigan. “Their work ethic is outstanding, and we just had to find a way to get pucks to the net, and start doing the simple things and little things we were doing early in the series.
“Once we started doing the simple things, I felt we started getting back to our game.”
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