The season is over for the Kings Mutual Bantam Wildcats.
After forcing a third and deciding game in their preliminary playoff series with the Newbridge Senators with a 2-1 win Mar. 2 in East Hants, the Wildcats were eliminated with a 6-1 loss to the Senators in game three the following day.
Game two was scoreless until Drake Batherson got the Wildcats on the board at 5:53 of the third period. Austin Gough then netted the eventual game-winner at 9:40, making it 2-0 Wildcats.
Connor Peverill’s power play goal got Newbridge on the board with 1:27 remaining, but the Senators could get no closer. Goalie Paul Janes ended up stopping 36 of 37 shots, while his teammates had 38 shots on Zachary Cadwell.
Kings Mutual deserved full marks for prolonging the series, but their luck ran out the following day as Newbridge took a 1-0 lead after one period and extended it to 4-0 by the end of the second.
Matthew Berrigan struck for a pair of goals, and Shawn Miller, Nick Cullen, Hunter Christmas and Ryan MacDonald netted single goals.
Dylan Taylor had the only Kings Mutual goal, a power play marker midway through the third period, by which time the score was already 5-0 Newbridge.
Evan Fitzpatrick stopped 25 of 26 shots in the Senators’ net.
Janes and Kate Spooner shared the goaltending duties for the Wildcats, with Janes allowing four goals on 21 shots and Spooner stopping five of seven.
The end of the season also marked the end of the Bantam careers for all but a handful of this year’s Wildcats’ team.
