HOCKEY: Goals just 24 seconds apart straddling the 13-minute mark of the third period by Austin Labelle and Taylor Brown lifted the Picton Pirates into a 6-4 lead and they held on to edge the Napanee Raiders 6-5 in a back-and-forth Empire B Junior C Hockey League game Tuesday night in Napanee. The win kept the two-time defending league champions rolling along on a late-season surge that has seen the Pirates win for the fifth game in a row and for the eighth time in their past 10 games. Four-place Picton has now opened a five-point advantage over the fifth-place Amherstview Jets, with the Pirates having eight games left and the Jets seven. Picton is also just four points behind the second-place Raiders and two back of the third-place Campbellford Rebels and holds a game in hand on each of them. Napanee, which has lost three of its last four games but also just three of its past nine, led 2-1 after the first period, but a pair of goals in the middle portion of the second period put Picton up 3-2. After Napanee tied it late in the second period, the Pirates went back ahead 39 seconds into the third. A little over 11 minutes later, the Raiders again tied the score, setting the stage for Pictons 24-second surge that fuelled the victory. A Napanee goal with 1:17 left in the third narrowed the margin once again to a goal. Labelle and Brown each scored twice for the Pirates, with Labelle also adding two assists for the four-point game. Phil Smith, who added a pair of assists, and Chris Jones netted Pictons other goals. League-leading scorer Brian Bunnett collected three assists. For Napanee, which outshot the Pirates in every period and 54-37 overall, Mitch Pearce tallied twice, with single goals coming from Brandon Nadeau, Josh St. Peter and Troy Wylie.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 04:55:28 +0000
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