YARMOUTH, N.S. – The Yarmouth Mariners opened their MHL Eastlink South Division final best-of-seven-game playoff series against the South Shore Lumberjacks with a 6-3 win at home Saturday, March 31.
Game 2 of the series is being played Monday evening, April 2, in Bridgewater.
Game 3 of the series is back in the Mariners Centre, a.k.a. the Fish Tank, Wednesday, April 4. Game time is 7 p.m.
The Mariners didn’t fare so well against South Shore during the regular season – losing in five of six meetings – but that’s not on their agenda for these playoffs that come at the conclusion of a tough semi-final battle against the Truro Bearcats that went to a Game 7. South Shore’s semi-final series had also gone to a Game 7 against the Amherst Ramblers.
In Game 1 Mateo Short (a former Yarmouth Mariner) opened the scoring for the Jacks just under seven minutes into the first period. The Mariners evened the score 1-1 on a power play goal by Andrew Martell (Adam Pilotte, Logan Timmons) at 14:16.
The Mariners widened the gap to 4-1 in the second period with goals by Kyle Bergh (3:13 Brendan Young, Chris Goreham), Patrick Daley (8:54 Timmons, Duncan McKie) and Matt Smith (11:17 Brent Broaders, Matt Barron).
The Lumberjacks cut the lead in half to 4-2 at 14:11 on a goal by Logan O’Neil but the Mariners added to their lead before the period ended with Timmons (Daley, Lauchie MacDonald) scoring at 17:35 for the 5-2 lead at the end of two periods.
Short struck again for South Shore one minute and 29 seconds into the third period with an unassisted, power play goal. The Mariners doubled the score to 6-3 at 6:54 in the period with Timmons (Martell, Daley) scoring again.
In net for the Mariners Leif Hertz stopped 30 of 33 shots. In net for South Shore Connor McCollum had 33 saves on 39 shots.
Game 4 of the series will be Friday, April 6 in Bridgewater. Game 5, if needed, will be Sunday, April 8 in Yarmouth; Game 6, if needed, will be Monday, April 9 in Bridgewater and Game 7, if needed, would be played Wednesday, April 11 in Yarmouth.
