Mariners fall to Ramblers

Yarmouth pulled goaltender Matt Kimber in favour of an extra skater after Todd Ballah scored at the 18:45 mark of the third to pull the Mariners to within a goal of the Ramblers, who at that point were up 5-4.

Ryan Penney and Georges d’Entremont assisted on Ballah’s goal.

Earlier markers for the Mariners came at 12:39 of the first period, a powerplay goal by Jamie Klie (assisted by Ballah and d’Entremont) that made the score 2-1 for Amherst, the Ramblers having already scored the first two goals of the game – Travis Turner tallying at the 4:30 mark and teammate Andrew Oakley scoring at 6:47.

The Ramblers made it 3-1 on a goal by Andrew Sweetland at 14:30.

Yarmouth narrowed the gap in the second period thanks to goals by Brent Lynch (assisted by Willie Harvey and Mike DeCoste) at 5:54 and Harvey (Mark Youden, Lynch) at 17:03 while the Mariners had a powerplay.

Sandwiched between those two Yarmouth goals was a powerplay marker by Amherst’s Sweetland 10:30 into the period, so the teams headed into the second intermission with the Ramblers up 4-3.

It remained that way 14 minutes into the third period, when the Ramblers got their fifth goal of the night, this one from Colin Feehan.

Later, as the Mariners tried to even the score with an extra attacker – Ballah’s goal having narrowed the deficit again to a single goal – the Mariners gave up a pair of empty-netters, Sweetland getting one (his third goal of the game) and Shawn McManaman the other.

The Mariners outshot the Ramblers 43-25.

Sweetland was the game’s first star, Amherst’s Andrew Hill the second star and Yarmouth’s Brent Lynch the third.

The teams play again tonight in Amherst and the Mariners play in Truro Sunday night.