CORNER BROOK — The Corner Brook Royals built up an early lead, but had to hang on for dear life to salvage a split against the Mount Pearl Blades on home ice.
The Blades rolled into Corner Brook Saturday night with some jump in their stride and suprised the hometown Royals with a gutsy performance and a 4-2 win at the Pepsi Centre, but the Royals were much better on Sunday eking out a 5-3 victory to salvage a split in the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League series at the Pepsi Centre.
On Sunday, the Royals banged home four goals in the opening stanza to set the stage for the second showdown of the two teams fighting for their playoff lives.
Justin Barbour, Scott Doody, Darren Langdon and Tim Caines, with a short-handed marker, scored for the Royals against Mount Pearl No. 1 goalie Roger Kennedy. Kennedy was lifted in favour of back-up Patrick Smith to start the second period after a shaky start.
The Royals took a 5-0 lead in the second period when Doug O’Brien scored from Caines and looked to be in total command of the contest heading into the second intermission.
The Blades kept coming in the third period and the reward was three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes to make it interesting as Royals goaltender Brad Dyke had to make some key saves in the later stages of the contest as the city squad wandered around in their own end of the ice not sure what was happening to them.
Adam Gear, Nathan Welton and Chris Mooney scored for the Blades in the third period of Sunday’s contest.
While Saturday’s contest was a lacklustre affair with very little in the way of physical play, there was reason to celebrate Sunday as Jake Easton paved the way for the Royals with a number of big hits against the fleet-footed Blades and Steve McJannet was also a physical force in the contest.
Fight fans were delighted to see a number of bouts in Sunday’s contest. McJannet squared off with Mount Pearl import David Cornacchia after the Mount Pearl player took exception to a hit to the head from the Royals import. The two imports traded a few punches and the bout was over quickly after McJannet lost his balance and fell to the ice. Cornacchia quickly skated to the dressing room as McJannet returned to his feet looking for his dancing partner who was nowhere to seen.
Former Corner Brook Royals defenceman Darren Roche played in his second and third games of the season with the Blades and played solid in his own end of the rink. He also found himself in a heated battle with Royals assistant captain Todd Ballah after Ballah went to the aid of his teammate who he felt took a dirty hit from Roche. Both guys got early showers with five-minute fighting majors, but Roche got the extra two minutes for a kneeing minor that undoubtedly got Ballah’s dandruff up.
Ballah picked up his second fighting major of the season so he will now have to miss the next three games on the schedule because of the league’s bible on fighting. Darren Langdon and Blades captain Grant Kenny traded some punches earlier in the contest, but Langdon, who picked up a goal and three assists in two games, was well aware he could face suspension for a second fighting major so he declined the offer from Kenny and spent four minutes in the sinbin instead of putting himself on the radar of league officials. It was Langdon’s most successful weekend with the Royals and a lot of people believe the former NHLer is playing better because he shed close to 20 pounds in the past month or so.
The Royals will tangle with the Blades in a two-game set at the Glacier in Mount Pearl next weekend in what could determine the playoff fate of both teams. The Royals have collected 12 points in 14 games, a single point ahead of fourth-place Mount Pearl.
The following is a look at how things unfolded in the two-game set between the Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts and Eastlink CeeBee Stars at Joe Byrne Memorial Stadium over the weekend:
Cataracts 2, CeeBee Stars 0
A. J. Whiffen posted the shutout to allow the Cats to salvage a split on home ice against the last-place CeeBee Stars.
Andre Gill, with the game-winning tally, and former Deer Lake Red Wings star Chris Peach scored for the Cats.
CeeBee Stars 5, Cataracts 2
Jared Tuton, Donnie Gosse, Keth Delaney, Matt Thomey and Mark Tobin lit the lamp for the CeeBee Stars in a huge road win at Joe Byrne Memorial Stadium Saturday night.
Andrew Brennan and Chad Earle scored for the Cataracts.
Doug Jewer picked up the goaltending win, while the loss was pinned on Cataracts No. 1 puckstopper Mark Yetman.
