The VHSHL boy’s league action got underway over the Oct. 21-23 weekend.

Many of the league’s teams were involved in the tournament hosted by West Kings, but there were also some league games played.

During the season, we include game recaps on our VHSHL website.

The recaps are sent in by the home teams and are posted based on when they are received, coupled with the availability of the webmaster, throughout the weekend and the first part of the week.

Good luck to all of our teams as another season gets underway.

CENTRAL KINGS 5 – AVON VIEW 2

The Appledome was rocking on Friday night, Oct. 21, with a near sellout crowd to watch the Gators’ season opener against Avon View. Both teams did not disappoint with a fast paced, hard hitting game that was highly entertaining.  

To the delight of the fans, the Gators opened up the scoring with two powerplay goals with the Avalanche shorthanded for a 4-minute penalty.  Connor White his first of the season assisted by Churchill and Nauss with 2:43 to go in the first.  And then 16 seconds later Brayden Williams scored his first career high school goal to put the Gators up by two.  

Avon View outshot the Gators in the first, but Locke Albrecht was solid in nets.  

The second period saw Avon View score two quick goals in 2 minutes to notch it at two a piece. Noah Macumber fired a point shot through traffic with assist to Wilson Davison to make it 2-1, and less than 2 minutes later Magnus Giswold fired a shot off the face to tie it at 2-2.   Caleb Boates scored his first of the year on a nice pass from Ryan Turner at 11:49 to put the Gators up 3-2.  The Gators then had a brief 5-on-3, and had multiple scoring chances but Avon View’s  Kenneth Fisher made some outstanding saves, and also had some help from a crossbar and post to keep Avon View within 1. However, with 1:45 to go in the second,  Connor White added his second of the night with assists to Turner and Boates as the Gators were up 4-2 after the second. 

Connor White got his third for the hattie at the 13:51 mark of the third to put the Gators up 5-2.  The Gators than ran into penalty trouble over the last 10 minutes, but Albrecht and the penalty killers came up big to hold the lead with the final being 5-2.

Both teams played hard and both goalies had some spectacular saves, which had the fans on the edge of their seats for most of the night.  A big thanks to Gators Nation for coming out.

HORTON 4 – AVON VIEW 0

Horton Griffins goalie Oliver Bezanson playing his very first high school hockey game had an Avon View Avalanche team asking themselves: "What more do we have to do to beat this guy?”  Bezanson blocked all 32 Avalanche shots Saturday, Oct. 22, before a sold-out West Hants Community Sportsplex to defeat Avon View 4-0 in the Avalanche’s home opener for the 22-23 season. 

Horton Assistant Coach John Anderson said following the game, “We simply could not have asked for anything more from someone who will do anything you ask.”

As for Avon View Head Coach Mark Tye said, “Bezanson literally stood on his head and we could not buy a goal.” 

Avon View ended up outshooting Horton 32-29 but missed different opportunities in the opening frame including Evan Baxter who did an end-to-end rush, Connor Beaton who missed on a hard shot from the point and Nathan Dill with a close in wrist shot.  Dawson Baillie made a great save on Horton’s Avery Buckle.  Horton then missed a 2-on-1 play with Cayden Anderson being denied.  Horton finally scored when C.J. Zinck took a pass from Makai Mahaney as they broke in 2 on 1 and Zinck beat Baillie high to his right side.  The Avalanche missed when Wilson Davison had a breakaway but a great poke-check by Hugo Sorbetti prevented Davison from getting a shot on net and as the first period wound down, Avalanche goalie Baillie robbed Sorbetti blind directly in front of the Avalanche net.

It was 1-0 Horton after one period.

In the second, it was a much slower start compared to the opening period before Sorbetti was denied again as he fought off 2 Avalance defenders.  Garrett Gaulton and Buckle then went in 2-on-1 but Gaulton decided to hang onto the puck at the end and Baillie made a nice save on a hard wrist shot 10 feet in front of him.  Avon View held a 2-man advantage and with 47 seconds remaining in the Griffins 2 minors, Horton drew another one.  Avon View dominated the power-play but could not get one past Bezanson.  The best chance for the Avalanche was when Harrison Sprague’s shot grazed the right goal post of Bezanson.  The Avalanche then had a 3-on-1 but Evan Baxter ended up shooting wide of the net.  Brody Richard missed a great chance directly in front of Bezanson with Horton players hanging all around and over him. 

C.J. Zinck and Cayden Anderson with only 26 seconds left in the middle period made it 3-0 Horton.

Things did not start well in the third for the Avalanche as only 9 seconds into the third, Connor Amero scored with a shot from the right face-off circle.  The Avalanche continue to make every attempt humanely possible to get one past Bezanson as Brody Richard attempted to feed the puck out to Lawson Spencer but Bezanson picked it up milliseconds before Spencer would have had a dynamite chance. Frustration began setting in for the Avalanche who then played 2 men short for 1:04.  Connor Amero missed in close and then Nathan MacAusland and Magnus Griswold went in 2-on-1 and were all over the Horton net, once again doing everything but score.  Likewise for Ryan Cooke who was all over the Horton net but came up empty. 

The final score was 4-0 Horton and shots on goal were 32-29 in favour of Avon View. 

Horton Assistant Anderson also commented on his team’s penalty killing in the second, saying “he couldn’t be more impressed as we dug in and good results pay off.”  As for the Avalanche’s power-play, Tye said, “a firm one has not been configured yet, but we will be doing plenty of work on that in the coming weeks."

CENTRAL KINGS 13 – MIDDLETON 0

Saturday night in Berwick saw the Gators hosting the Monarchs in the Gators’ second game of the season.  The Gators started out fast and took advantage of early Middleton penalties scoring 4 goals in just over 3 minutes with two on the powerplay.  Churchill started it off, with Hebb, Meister and Balsor all finding the back of the net early.  Then with 6 minutes to go in the first, Kaleb Boates scored 2 in 30 seconds as the first period ended with the gators up 6-0. 

The second period saw a couple of new Gators get their first goals of the season with Tanner Wood and Drew Coleman scoring; and Aidan Meister added his second of the game to make it 9-0 after two periods.  

The gators added 4 more in the third with Nathan Langille and Austin McKay getting their first of the year.  Tanner Wood would add his second , and Kaleb Boates scored his third of the game for the hat trick.  Rookie goaltender Shawn Crocker, making his first high school start, turned away 9 shots for his first win and shutout of the year. Wyatt Logie and Ryan Turner both had 2 assists.

Middleton goalie Mason Taylor played well in the loss as he faced relentless pressure from the Gators who had close to 50 shots on net.