Deer Lake Wins Opener

The Deer Lake Red Wings defeated the Corner Brook Royals as the start of the West Coast Senior Hockey League kicked off.

The Corner Brook Royals opening the scoring at 6:04 of the first period as Iain Pilgrim scored the opening goal in the first period. The Wings responded at 10:12 when Luke Parsons netted his first of the season to even the score at 1-1. The Wings took a 2-1 lead on a goal by Noah Legge at the 14:27 mark of the first period. The Corner Brook squad evened the score at 18:01 when Daniel Noseworthy scored, making it 2-2 after the first period.

The Royals took a 3-2 lead as Pilgrim scored early in the second period at the 1:41 mark. Brandon Hyned made it 4-2 Royals at the 4:01 mark. The Wings quickly made it 4-3 as Jalen Gillard scored on the power play. Gillard would get his second of the night at the 15:22 mark. The Royals would make it 5-4 when Tyler Hunt scored at 16:11.

The royals made it 6-4 after Brandon Hynes scored his second of the night at the 5:38 mark of the third period. The Deer Lake squad would not give up and stormed back with three unanswered goals as Lukas McKay scored on the power play to make it 6-5 at the 7:55 mark of the third. Joshua Skinner tied the game at 6-6 at the 15:08 mark of the third.

The Royals found themselves down a man late in the third period when Jeremy Bishop took a tripping penalty. Jalen Gillard would get the hat trick, scoring with just 8 seconds left in the third, lifting the Wings to a 7-6 win.

Gillard picked up 5 points on the night (3G/2A) for the Wings, with teammate Lucas McKay adding 4 points (1G/3A). Brandon Hynes & Iain Pilgrim both netted 3 points for the Royals in the loss (2G/1A).

Nicholas Mitchelmore made 43 saves for the Deer Lake win. Ian Woolfry was tagged with the loss for the Royals.