The worst thing about Saturday night’s game at the Mariners Centre on Feb. 27 wasn’t just that the Yarmouth Mariners lost. It’s that in another arena elsewhere in the province, the Amherst Ramblers won.
With the Mariners loss and the Ramblers win, it meant both teams ended the regular season with 42 points. But the Ramblers win edged out the Mariners from advancing to the post season because it meant that at the end of the season the Ramblers had 20 wins and the Mariners only had 19.
So the Mariners’ season is over.
The Halifax Lions defeated the Yarmouth Mariners 3-1 in the Mariners’ last game of the season on Dec. 27.
After a scoreless first period, Justin Belanger (unassisted) opened the scoring 53 seconds into the middle frame to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Yarmouth’s Ryan Nickerson (powerplay) scored at 19:32 to tie the game at 1-1 after the second period. Robbie Veriker (game winner) scored at 6:51 to retake the lead for Halifax at 2-1. Travis Perry (empty net) rounded out the scoring at 19:46.
Halifax went 0 for 6 on the powerplay while Yarmouth went 1 for 4. Kody Blois stopped 23 of 24 shots for the win while Alex Newman stopped 26 of 28 shots in the loss.
The Ramblers, who were playing the Bent Division league-leading Truro Bearcats defeated the Bearcats 4-3. The loss had no bearing on Truro’s final standing in the division.