Caps and Capitals lead respective series as St. John’s Junior Hockey League semifinals tighten up

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The top two teams in the St. John’s Junior Hockey League find themselves falling behind in their respective semifinal series.

The CBN Junior Stars and the Mount Pearl Junior Blades finished first and second in the regular season and now both trail their opponents 2-1 heading into a pivotal weekend of play.

Both the Avalon Junior Capitals, playing CBN, and the St. John’s Junior Caps, squaring off with Mount Pearl, have a chance to take a stranglehold on their respective series and even win if the next couple of games break their way.

The Junior Stars got back into their series with the Junior Capitals with a 4-0 win in Game 3 of the series Tuesday night at the Bay Arena in Bay Roberts.

Still, the Capitals won the first two games of the series and will look to jump out to a 3-1 series lead when they host the Junior Stars at the DF Barnes Arena in St. John’s for Game 4 on Friday, March 24.

Across town at the Twin Rinks, the Junior Caps will look to follow suit and take a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series with the Blades on Saturday, March 25.

The Caps won 3-2 on March 19 to take a slim lead. Before that, the Blades and Caps traded wins in the first two games of the series.

The winners of the semifinals will then challenge for the Gerry Taylor Memorial Trophy as the league’s champion.

Here is a look at the two series so far:

The St. John’s Junior Caps lead the Mount Pearl Junior Blades 2-1

Game 1 (Thursday, March 16):

• Score — 3-2 Caps
• Shots — 33-31 Caps
• Mount Pearl scorers — Noah Harty and Brandon Knight
• St. John’s scorers — Jordan Winter, Ryley Warren and Mark Davis
• Mount Pearl goaltender — Andrew d’Entremont made 30 saves in the loss
• St. John’s goaltender — Jack Benson made 29 saves in the win

Game 2 (Saturday, March 18):

• Score — 3-2 (OT) Blades
• Shots — 57-40 Caps
• Mount Pearl scorers — Christopher Martell, Noah King and Brandon Knight
• St. John’s scorers — Murray Byrne and Nicholas Dunn.
• Mount Pearl goaltender — Avery Loveless made 55 saves in the win
• St. John’s goaltender — Jack Benson made 37 saves in the loss

Game 3 (Sunday, March 19):

• Score — 4-1 Caps
• Shots — 42-30 Blades
• Mount Pearl scorer — Brandon Knight
• St. John’s scorers — Andrew Veitch, Jordan Winter, Devon Murphy and Jakob Hann
• Mount Pearl goaltender — Andrew d’Entremont made 26 saves in the loss
• St. John’s goaltender — Nathan Hurley made 41 saves in the win

The Avalon Junior Capitals lead the CBN Junior Stars 2-1

Game 1 (Friday, March 17):

• Score — 7-5 Capitals.
• Shots — 57-46 Stars.
• CBN scorers — Owen Sparkes (2), Corey Parsons, David Hibbs and Damian Laundry.
• Avalon scorers — Regan Seymour (3), James Noftall (2), Patrick Beer and Colin McKinnon.
• CBN goaltender — Riley Petten made 39 saves in the loss.
• Avalon goaltender — Hunter White made 52 saves in the win.

Game 2 (Saturday, March 18):

• Score — 4-3 (OT) Capitals.
• Shots — 60-35 Stars.
• CBN scorers — Alex Crane (2) and Reid Deering.
• Avalon scorers — Jeffrey King (2), Patrick Farrell and Colin McKinnon.
• CBN goaltender — Riley Petten made 31 saves in the loss
• Avalon goaltender — Hunter White made 57 saves in the win.

Game 3 (Tuesday, March 21):

• Score — 4-0 Stars.
• Shots — 40-40.
• CBN scorers — Luke Akerman, Dawson Crane, Alex Crane and Owen Sparkes.
• Avalon scorers — None.
• CBN goaltender — Riley Petten made 40 saves in the win.
• Avalon goaltender — Hunter White made 25 saves in the loss; Noel Vinicombe made 11 saves.

Nicholas Mercer covers sports for The Telegram.