The Yarmouth Mariners defeated the CIBC Wood Gundy Bridgewater Lumberjacks 8-3 Friday night in Yarmouth.
Braden Mercier, named first star of the game, and Jon Johannesson, named second star, led the Mariners with two goals each, while Josh Desmond collected three assists.
The Mariners jumped to a commanding lead by scoring four goals in the first eight-and-a-half minutes of the game, which in the end was all the scoring the team needed.
Mercier (Matt Wright, Rodney Mahoney) opened the scoring at 2:36 to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead. Kevin Reid (unassisted) scored at 4:36 to extend the lead to 2-0. Connor Donaghey (Jared Hicks, Matt Tomah) scored at 7:46 to increase the lead to 3-0. Johannesson (Cody Castro, Josh Desmond), with the game winner, scored 50 seconds later at 8:36 to widen the lead to 4-0 after the first period.
Mercier’s second goal of game (assisted by Donaghey, Hicks) was scored at 1:49 in the second period to extend the lead to 5-0. Johannesson’s second goal of game (Ben MacSwain, Connor Rogers) was scored 38 seconds after that at 2:27 to increase the lead to 6-0. Michael Crawley (Ryan Groom, Brandon Leonardo) scored at 17:14 to get the Lumberjacks on the scoreboard at 6-1. Ben MacSwain scored 55 seconds later at 18:09 to make the score 7-1 after the second period.
Former Mariner Groom (Shawn Boudreau, Mitchell Hennebury) scored on the powerplay at 2:24 to cut the lead to 7-2. Luc Ramey scored on the powerplay at 4:24 to narrow the lead to 7-3. Matt Tomah (Desmond, Castro) scored on the powerplay to round out the scoring at 19:09 to 8-3. Groom, who was recently traded to Bridgewater, along with former Mariner Brendan Nickerson, was the third star of the game.
Yarmouth went 1 for 3 on the powerplay while Bridgewater went 2 for 6. Brock Crossthwaite stopped 22 of 25 shots for the win.
