East Hants Penguins down Valley Maple Leafs 9-4

WINDSOR, N.S. — Much like the previous week when the Valley Maple Leafs took on the Pictou County Scotians, the Leafs found themselves down several goals before they could blink during their Friday night contest with the East Hants Penguins.

The opening period Nov. 10 in Windsor saw some soft goal-tending as the Leafs’ Christopher Clokie was not blocking his low angles. A top Penguins skater moved around the net and jammed the puck home to give the Pens an early lead. The next three goals, two by the Penguins and one by the Leafs, were all scored on soft wrist shots. The Leafs’ Isaac Bridge connected for the hometown team’s first goal of the evening.

The Leafs outshot the Penguins 16-13 in the first period but East Hants held an overall shots advantage of 44-39 at the end of the night.

In the second, Bridge, showing considerable hustle, brought the Leafs back to within one on a backhanded pass to Nathan Clarke, who scored.

East Hants then ran into a slew of penalties, which forced them to play two men short on two separate occasions.

Although the Leafs’ power-play didn’t excel during this time, the team did manage a power-play goal after Mitchell Singer and Jacob Roberts battled for the puck along the boards near the Penguins’ blue line.  Singer eventually won the battle and got the puck to Kyle Keddy who passed it over to Ethan Rendell-Watson for the Leafs' tying goal.

The Leafs were controlling a good portion of the game in the second period until the wheels came off with 3:25 left and the Penguins scored three times to put them up 6-3.

The third period began with Leafs back-up goaltender Brett Davies taking over and making a solid save and Wesley Demone scoring to bring the Leafs back to within two goals.

But the Penguins struck back to make the final 9-4.

Ryan Huestis stopped 35 of 39 shots he faced in the Penguins' net.