The Nova Major Bantams were eager to show their mettle against the Bedford Barons this past weekend in a home & home series, as the Barons remained the only undefeated team in the Nova Scotia Major Bantam Hockey League. On Saturday afternoon at The Antigonish Arena it appeared that only one team showed up with the intention of playing as The Novas skated to an 8-1 dominating win over the Barons. The Novas led a very balanced attack with goals coming from Matthew Ellis (2), Lewis Taylor, Ben MacLellan (2), Brant Timmons, Luke Hadley & Graham MacDonald and a total of twelve players on the team recording points in the game. Ben van Steinburg backstopped The Novas to the win in nets allowing only the one goal by The Barons. “We’ve been working very hard on all aspects of our game,” said Coach Mike Stewart. “We pride ourselves on being prepared for every game and every opponent. Today everything seem to come together and we were firing on all cylinders but we can still be better though, it’s only the start of the season and we have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be.”
On Sunday, The Novas travelled to the city and came away with a 3-2 loss to a Barons team that was better prepared to play. Rookie Lewis Taylor scored both goals for The Novas with Dell Welton, Ben MacLellan and Sam Grant contributing assists. Kenzie MacPhail recorded with loss in nets stopping all but 3 of the 21 shots he faced. “We learned some valuable lessons today about teamwork and not taking our opponent for granted. Our players recognize that we need to keep improving in certain areas of our game and that we have to come to the rink ready to play every day.”
The Novas open the month of October on the road as they visit the Pro Hockey Life Harbour Storm next Saturday at Cole Harbour Place with a 7:00PM start time and then they face off on Sunday against the Halifax Accel Hawks at the Halifax Civic Arena at 11:30AM.