Shamrocks yield four goals in a row in loss to Norwich

NORWICH – The Hespeler Shamrocks surrendered four consecutive goals to the Norwich Merchants as they were edged 6-5 in Provincial Junior Hockey League play Friday night at the NOR-DEL Arena.

The Shamrocks led 2-1 at the end of the first period and the teams were tied 3-3 at the end of the second.

Norwich’s four consecutive goals started at 6:17 of the second period and finished at 3:33 of the third with the Merchants ahead 5-3.

Gavin Logher had a pair of goals for the Shamrocks while singletons were added by Ryan Fraser, Mathew Styka and Boden White. Andrew Harris set up two of the goals while single assists were awarded to Jack Restauri, Julian Attard, Mitchell Smilsky, White, Dylan Richardson and Liam Nelson.

Brandon Balazs had a hat trick for Norwich while Joel Storoschuk had two goals and Nicholas Zammit had one. Storoschuk and Jesse Reimer had two assists each while Malcolm Scott, Joel Verspeeten, Brenden Cattrysse, Lincoln Swerdfeger and Nathan Murphy each had one.

The Shamrocks outshot the Merchants 44-30 including a 36-17 advantage after the first period. Hespeler also went 3-for-8 on its power play while Norwich went 1-for-5.

Lucas Hillert had 24 saves for the Shamrocks while Tanner Richardson had 39 for Norwich.

The result leaves the Shamrocks at 4-6-0-0 and Norwich at 3-6-1-0.

The Shamrocks are to host the Paris Titans (1-7-1-0) Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Hespeler Memorial Arena.

• Guelph Sports Journal