Newfoundland major midget hockey: Blizzard erodes Growlers' first-place lead

The second-place East Coast Blizzard closed the gap on the league-leading Pinnacle Growlers with a pair of wins in head-to-head matchups between the metro-based teams in provincial major midget hockey play over the weekend.

On Saturday at the Paradise Double Ice Complex, the East Coast team got an overtime goal from Travis Badcock and 29 saves from netminder Cruz Loughlin in a 3-2 OT victory, then followed up with a 6-3 decision in a rematch Sunday at the Glacier in Mount Pearl.

In the latter game, Ethan Moore scored two goals for the Blizzard, who fired 42 shots at Pinnacle goalkeeper Evan Martin.

The Growlers (10-2-1), still lead the Blizzard by four points, but the East Coast side (8-1-1) has three games in hand.

In other provincial league weekend play, the Western Kings (2-6-1) and visiting Tri Pen Osprey (5-4-1) split a pair of games at the Hodder Arena in Deer Lake. The Kings edged the Osprey 3=2 in Saturday’s opener, but Tri Pen responded with a 4-1 victory Sunday.

Scoring details were unavailable.

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