Mariners fall 3-2 to Lumber Kings in overtime at Fred Page Cup

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

The Yarmouth Mariners lost 3-2 to the Pembroke Lumber Kings – the defending Fred Page Cup champions – on Thursday, but it took overtime to declare the victor in Game 3 of the eastern Canadian junior A championship.

Not only were the Mariners and the Lumber Kings tied 2-2 at the end of regulation play, both teams had 32 shots on net when the final buzzer sounded to push the game into overtime.

In the end it was Pembroke that broke the tie with the winning overtime goal scored by Mike Santee.

Mariner Ryan Penney (who had two goals the day before in a 7-4 Mariner win over the Sherbrooke Cougars) opened the scoring for the Mariners and the game 2:22 into the first period, assisted by Danny Anger and Jordan Scott.

Pembroke answered 58 seconds later with a goal by Eric Selleck.

There was no scoring during the second period with both goalies – Dallas Ungurian for the Mariners and Paul Beckwith for the Lumber Kings – each turning away eight shots.

Mariner Steve Pearson broke the tie in the third with an unassisted goal to put the Mariners up 2-1. Less than four minutes later Pembroke’s Chris Bryson scored on the power play.

Pembroke went 1 for 6 on the powerplay while Yarmouth went 0 for 5.

Alexandre Soucy was selected as the Yarmouth Player of the Game.



This was the first time the two teams had faced each other since Pembroke – the 2008 CJHL champions – had cut the Mariners down 6-1 to win Yarmouth’s pre-season Lobster Pot Tournament at the Mariners Centre last fall.

The loss gives Yarmouth a 1-1 record at the Fred Page Cup, while the win gives Pembroke a 2-0 record.



Thursday evening the Pictou County Weeks Crushers defeated the Sherbrooke Cougars 6-2, giving Pictou a 1-1 record and Sherbrooke a 0-2 record.



On Friday afternoon Sherbrooke and Pembroke play at 4 p.m.

The Mariners play the Crushers at 8 p.m.



Heading into Friday's games, the standings see Pembroke in first place, the Mariners in second, the Crushers in third and the Cougars in fourth.

This means Pembroke advances to Sunday's championship final and the Mariners and Pictou will play in Saturday night's semi-final with the winner advancing to Sunday's championship.