Shamrocks double Burford in debut in Doherty Division
BURFORD – The Hespeler Shamrocks opened their Provincial Junior Hockey League regular season with a 4-2 victory over the Burford Bulldogs Saturday night at the Burford Arena.
Hespeler struck for the first three goals of the game on its way to the victory.
Hespeler Shamrocks 4 Burford 2
The Shamrocks opened the scoring with 48 seconds to go in the first period and netted two more before the second period was seven minutes old. Hespeler led 3-1 at the end of the second while the scoring in the third was limited to a span of just over a minute and a half in the final seven minutes of the period.
Josh Houston, Matthew Hayward, Tony Tikel and Braeden Tyler each had a goal for the Shamrocks while Gavin Logher assisted on two of the goals and Matthew Diebolt, Owen Fischer and Trent Collins each had one assist.
Thomas Morgan and Derick Da Silva had a goal apiece for Burford while assists were awarded to Jake Phelan, Ryan Squires, Morgan and Shayne Dickie.
Joseph Clark picked up the win in net for the Shamrocks as he had 19 saves. Shendon Smith had 34 saves for Burford.
Hespeler outshot the Bulldogs 38-21, including a 12-4 margin in the first period, and was scoreless on five power plays while Burford went 1-for-7.
The Shamrocks have moved from the Bloomfield Division to the Doherty Division in the PJHL’s South Conference. Other members of the Doherty Division are Burford, New Hamburg Firebirds, Norwich Merchants, Tavistock Braves, Wellesley Applejacks and Woodstock Navy Vets.
Next up for the Shamrocks is their home opener Wednesday against New Hamburg (1-0-0-0). Game time at the Hespeler Memorial Arena is 7:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal