May 13 – The Saints got their first glimpse of the Far East division over the weekend as the Ottawa-area teams made the trek to Newmarket. It was the Nepean Knights that matched up with the home side on Saturdaynight and it went down to the wire.
Dylan Munro manned the mesh for the Saints while Denzel Moran-Weekes got the start for the Knights.
Newmarket opened the scoring on a nice shot from Eric Mawdsley. The two teams traded chances after that until penalties hit the Saints and the Knights capitalized, scoring two quick power play goals. The Saints’ Brodie Willard got it back to even, but a late period goal by Neapean with just three seconds remaining on the clock gave Nepean the 3-2 lead going into the intermission.
The second was a grind for both offences. The goalies shut the door and defences kept the shots to the outside. Coulson Link finally broke through, scoring his first career Junior B goal and tying the game at threes on an outside look that went bar down. Nepean would answer right back with two quick goals, including a shorthanded breakaway to take a 5-3 lead into the break.
The Knights picked up right where they left off in the third, firing a pair of shots past Munro to extend the lead to 7-3. It looked like Nepean was going to run away with it, but penalties turned the tide. Mawdsley found the back of the net on the power play at the five minute mark and then put home his third of the night on a solo effort to make it a two-goal game.
The Saints continued to control the play and pulled Munro with a few minutes left. The extra man paid off as Angus Rawding’s scored with just a minute to go to cut the lead to one. Newmarket got the ball back off the next draw, worked it around and Aiden Fearn fired a bounce shot right off the far post. The Knights added an empty netter to take the game.
"That was a real tight game, both teams pushing the pace and the goaltenders were equal to the task," said Saints Head Coach, Dan Ransom Sr. "They went on a bit of a run there late in the second and continued early into the third to put us down by four. Credit to our group, we pushed back and got a good look to tie it late, but the post won that battle. That's a good ball club that capitalized on our mistakes."
Final score: Knights 8 – Saints 6.
Up next – the Saints host the Gloucester Griffins Sunday afternoon. Is there a better way to celebrate Mother’s Day?