FREDERICTON, N.B. — The Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals had a bounce-back game in a busy Maritime Junior Hockey League stretch Saturday night.
The Capitals, who fell 5-2 to the Edmundston Blizzard in Friday’s opening game of a punishing three-game road swing through New Brunswick – it wrapped up Sunday in Grand Falls – steamrolled the Fredericton Red Wings 7-2 before 1,180 fans at Fredericton’s Grant-Harvey Centre.
Reigning league MVP Brodie MacArthur, Zach Thususka and Gianluca Fuoco each scored a goal and added an assist and Kallum Muirhead, Marc Richard, Colby MacArthur and Bennett MacArthur all added singles past Red Wings rookie goaltender Erik MacInnis, of Stratford, an 18-year-old rookie making his first MHL start.
It showed at times – Brodie MacArthur’s short-handed goal at 5:53 of the second period came when he intercepted MacInnis’s clearing pass and Fuoco’s goal to complete the scoring was another he would like back.
But the truth of the matter is the Capitals, who improved to 2-1-0 (won-lost-overtime losses), looked like the strong and solid team they’re expected to be in the league this year; and the Red Wings (2-2-0) looked like the young, and sometimes struggling team, they’re expected to be.
Coach’s assessment
“I thought we were pretty good,” said Caps head coach Billy McGuigan. “For us, it was a big bounce back.
“We were really poor [Friday] night in Edmundston. We didn’t play our systems too well and we didn’t compete very well. We have some skill. But if our skill doesn’t compete, we have a tough time winning hockey games.”
They didn’t have a tough time winning this one – they outshot the Wings 44-32, led 2-0 after one period and 5-0 through 40 minutes. The Wings broke goaltender Alex MacVicar’s bid for a shutout with goals exactly a minute apart, by Connor McGregor of Charlottetown and Alex Pellerin, early in the third.
“Yesterday [Friday], we only had 13 shots through two periods,” said Brodie MacArthur. “Our goal (Saturday) was to put more pucks on the net and obviously it worked.”
Example: Shots on goal were 5-5 early in the game; they were 18-10 after the first period and 33-20 through 40 minutes.
“We knew we had an extra gear and we brought it (Saturday), right from the get-go,” he said.
“We knew they were a good team,” said Red Wings coach Brian Casey after emerging from a pin quiet dressing room 20 minutes later. “It was one of those things where we got behind, and we were stuck in the mud.
“We couldn’t find a spark You’ve got to give them credit. There’s good players on that team, and you can tell they’ve been together. They move the puck well.
“But we get to see where we are. We get to see where we are and where we’ve got to get to and the work we’ve got to do."
The Capitals close out a stretch of five straight road games in Miramichi on Thursday night against the Timberwolves (0-3-0), before hosting the defending-champion Yarmouth Mariners (4-1-0) in their home opener at Eastlink Arena on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m.
With files from Fredericton Gleaner.
