AMHERST – Kody Orr and Brock Morrison each scored twice as the Amherst CIBC Wood Gundy Ramblers defeated the Bridgewater Lumberjacks 5-2 in Maritime Junior Hockey League action on Saturday.
The win came a day after a tough 2-1 overtime loss in Yarmouth on Friday.
“It was a good win for us. These guys have been battling hard of late in some tough games and we knew tonight was going to be a tough game after a late night last night,” Ramblers’ coach Jim Bottomley said. “You don’t want to take anything for granted and we knew they were going to come out hard after Friday night.”
Orr opened the scoring just four minutes into the game when he scored his team-leading 24th goal of the season from Ben Berisha and Mitch O’Neill. Morrison extended the lead to 2-0 at the 12:35 mark scoring from Josh Pugsley and Ryan Caswell.
There was no scoring in the second period with Orr, Morrison and Brett Shute scoring in the first half of the final period to build up a 5-0 lead.
Jared Dodman and Michael Crawley scored for Bridgewater to break Chase Marchand’s shutout bid. For Crawley it was his 200th point as a Lumberjack.
Morgan Walker picked up two assists in the game for the Ramblers while O’Neil, Berisha and Shute each added third period assists.
Amherst outshot the Lumberjacks 44-40.
The Ramblers were playing without defenceman Cam McDonald who was given a one-game suspension for a game misconduct in Yarmouth on Friday while Pugsley injured his shoulder in the first period and could be out for a few weeks.
Jeff MacPherson was scratched after blocking a slapshot with his foot in Yarmouth. Defenceman Jamie Bishop served the last game of his two-game suspension while Ben MacDonald and Maxime Richard are still out with injuries.
Zach Anderson, who played with the Cumberland County Blues, was called up for the game and saw a lot of time on the blueline.
“Last year it seemed to happen at the first of the year and throughout the year. Now it’s hitting us late in the year. That’s why it was fortunate that we went out and picked up a couple of additional players at the deadline,” Bottomley said.
On Friday, Brandon Bussey’s second goal of the game with a minute to go in overtime gave the Mariners a 3-2 win over Amherst.
His goal came after Jared Hicks forced overtime scoring on a deflection with 16 seconds left after Jacob Conrad gave the Ramblers a 2-1 lead with 2:39 to play.
Danny Harquail also scored for Amherst, while Richard Tingley was sensational in goal facing 43 shots.
Amherst returns to action on Thursday at the new Wellness Centre in New Glasgow against the Weeks Crushers. Game time is 7:30 p.m. The game is being broadcast on 101.7 CKDH.
The Ramblers return home on Saturday to face the Dieppe Commandos.
dcole@amherstdaily.com
