ESTEVAN - Day 4 of the Centennial Cup national junior A hockey championship, presented by Tim Hortons, featured a blowout and an overtime thriller for the fans who gathered at Affinity Place in Estevan on Sunday.
The blowout was a 7-1 victory for the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Dauphin Kings over the Maritime Hockey League’s Summerside Western Capitals. The game was actually scoreless after the first period, and Summerside peppered Dauphin goalie Carson Cherepak with shots early in the game, including several scoring chances on one shift.
Nick Braun opened the scoring for Dauphin 3:50 into the second period. The Kings took over late in the frame, with goals by Braun and Logan Calder 18 seconds apart, and then Parker Malchuk scored twice in less than a minute for a 5-0 Dauphin lead. The last four goals game in the final five minutes of the period.
Kaden Bryant and Brayden Dube added goals 61 seconds apart in the third for Dauphin, while William Irvine had Summerside’s lone goal with 2:55 to play in the third.
Dauphin improved its record to 2-0, while Summerside is 1-1.
The evening game saw the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Pickering Panthers defeat the College Francais de Longueuil 3-2 in overtime. Longueuil won the Ligue de Hockey Junior AAA du Quebec championship.
Zachary Racicot scored 9:52 into the first period to open the scoring for Longueuil, but Alex Papaspyropoulos replied a few minutes later.
Owen Stammer’s goal 3:31 into the second period put Longueuil in the lead, and it remained 2-1 until midway through the third when Jacob Partridge scored for Pickering to force overtime.
Ian Martin had the overtime winner on a breakaway 48 seconds into the extra frame.
Simon Berube made 29 saves for Longueuil, while Zacharay Roy stopped 25 shots for Pickering.
Pickering has won all three of its games, with one win coming in overtime, so they have eight points. Longueuil is now 1-1-1, good for four points.
Three games are slated for Monday. The Ottawa Junior A Senators of the Central Canadian Hockey League will play the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League at noon; the Flin Flon Bombers, who are the SJHL representatives, will play the Capitals at 4 p.m., and the host Estevan Bruins, who won the SJHL championship, will play the Red Lake Miners of the Superior International Junior Hockey League at 7:30 p.m.
SASKTODAY.ca will continue to have coverage of the tournament.
