In the first game of the Eastern Canada Cup tournament in Trenton, ON, the MHL South picked up a 5-2 win over the OJHL Oates team. Pictou County’s Ben Mercer opened the scoring at 8:04 with an assist from Crushers teammate Nick Mahar. Shots were 19-13 for the MHL side after the opening period.
The OJHL would tie the game on the powerplay at 2:55 of the 2nd period, but the South scored three straight goals to take a commanding lead. The goals came from Truro’s Simon Mullen at 6:20 (assists from the Crushers’ Logan O’Neil and Yarmouth’s Nathan Carter), Valley’s Brendan MacRitchie at 12:23 (assists from O’Neil and Mullen), and Carter.
The OJHL cut the lead to 4-2 at 15:15 on another powerplay goal, but Mercer found an empty net for his second goal of the game at 18:55 to give the MHL side the win. Truro’s Yacine Chemrouk stopped 26 of 28 shots for the win.
The South next play the CCHL Robinson team at 8 p.m.