Mustangs Split in Cape Breton

The South Shore Canadian Tire Mustangs made their final regular season trip to Cape Breton this past weekend in search of two wins.  They came home with one.

Saturday vs. CB Islanders.

The Mustangs came out strong scoring the first three goals of the game from the sticks of Jagger Harnish (Blair, Graves), Brandon Verge (Harnish) and Tyler Quinlan (Bailey, Patterson).  Two goals by the Islanders before the end of the 2^nd allowed the Mustangs to enter the 2^nd intermission with a narrow 3-2 lead.

In the third the Mustangs encountered some interesting “penalty”   trouble but the Mustang penalty killing was up to the task shutting down the Islanders powerplay.

Brandon Verge (Patterson, Bailey) added his second of the game in the third and Connor O’Brien sealed the win with an empty netter to make the final score 5-2 Mustangs.  Special teams was very strong as the Mustangs scored 3 goals on the powerplay and did not allow a goal on the penalty kill.

Billy Clarke was solid when called upon making 32 saves for the win.  Miguel Sullivan took the loss making 37 saves.

With the win Saturday night the Mustangs surpassed last season’s win and point total for all of 2009-10

Sunday vs. CB Tradesmen

The Mustangs headed to Center 200 again with an opportunity for a perfect weekend with a win against the offensively gifted Tradesmen club.   The game did not start off on a great note for the Mustangs as the Tradesmen scored on their first powerplay opportunity.  After some intermission adjustments to the penalty kill the Mustangs were able to keep the Tradesmen potent powerplay off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game with the man advantage but the Tradesmen would prove to be too much 5 on 5 as they added two more goals 5 on 5 and one empty netter to make the final 4-1.  Connor Hirtle scored for the Mustangs who did not generate near enough offensively to have a chance to win the game.  Tyler Pyke finished with a hat trick for the Tradesmen and league scoring leader, Kyle Farrell added 3 assists. 

Scott MacDonald got the win in goal stopping 16 of 17 shots while Cole Skinner was superb in defeat holding the Tradesmen to 1 goal after 2 periods and stopping 33 of 36 shots in defeat.

The Mustangs travel to the Valley this Saturday night to take on the Wildcats and return home Sunday to take on the Halifax Titans.