The Blades shake hands with the Celtics after game 7. | Photo by: Colin Peddle

For the first time in 4 years, the Mark’s Work Wearhouse Mount Pearl Junior Blades will not be playing for the St.John’s Junior Hockey League Championship. The Junior Celtics defeated the Blades in game 7 on Sunday night by a score of 5-4. The Celtics will now playing the St.John’s Caps in the league finals.

The Blades opened the scoring as Brandon McDonald converted a 2-on-1 pass from Steve Bailey. Kyle Pardy replied for the Celtics, but McDonald scored his 2nd of the game quickly after that giving the Blades a 2-1 lead. The Celtics scored another goal before the end of the first, and the teams were tied in the intermission. The Celtics scored the loan goal of the second period, but controlled majority of the play as the Blades seemed as they could not get it out of their own zone. Goalie Nick Rodway kept the Blades in the game, as he has all series, making 35 saves in the loss. The third period seen the Celtics come out firing as they scored 2 early goals, and put them up 5-2. With a little over 6 minutes left, Lucas Dearing of the blades were assessed a 4 minute penalty for high-sticking. While on the Penalty kill, the Blades managed to score 2 goals, as Mike rose and Brandon McDonald, with his third of the game, scored to get the Blades within 1 of the Celtics. However, the Celtics managed to hold off the surging Blades, and the buzzer went with the Celtics winning. Game 1 of the League finals will go Tuesday night, Mar 23rd at Twin Rinks, game time 8:10pm.

The Mark’s Work Wearhouse Mount Pearl Junior Blades are not going away quietly. After losing the first 3 games of the series against the Celtics, the Blades have rebounded to win the last 2 games. Sunday night, they defeated the Celtics 3-2.

The Blades scored the loan goal in the first period as Brandon McDonald scored from Steve Bailey and Mike Rose. Matthew Oates scored 2 goals for the Celtics in the second period, as the Blades were down 2-1 after 2 periods of play. In the third period, Steve Bailey scored the tying goal from Lucas Coady and Rose. The game winner was scored by Lucas Dearing who converted a nice pass from Bailey on a 2-on-1 with just 3:03 left to play in the game. The Blades fended off the surging Celtics in the final minutes of the game, as the Celtics were on the power-play and had their goalie pulled from the net in the last minute of the third period. The Blades played most of the game with only 5 defensemen as Larry Gray received a game misconduct for checking from behind just 7 minutes into the game.

Nick Rodway made 31 saves for the win, while David Parsons made 23 saves for the Celtics. Rodway was named Jungle Jim’s Visiting Team Player of the Game, while Oates was named Jungle Jim’s Home Team Player of the Game.

Game 6 is set for Wednesday night, March 17, at the Glacier in Mount Pearl. Game time is 7:30pm.

The Mark’s Work Wearhouse Mount Pearl Junior Blades find themselves in a hole after a pair of 5-4 loses to the Junior Celtics this past weekend.

Friday night, at O’Hehir arena, the Blades took a 2-1 lead after the first period of play, on goals from Steve Bailey and Jacob Pitcher. After the second period, the Blades led the game 4-2. Michael Rose scored and Pitcher notched is 2nd of the game. However, during the second period, the Arena had some maintenance issues which caused a few lengthy delays. After these delays, it seemed as though the wind was taken out of the Blades sails. The Celtics came out firing in the 3rd period, scoring 3 goals and shutting the Blades out. Celtics goal scorers were Matthew Oates, Jeff Hustler, Shawn Roberts, Michael Ricketts and Travis Curtis. Nick Rodway was in net for the Blades, while David Parsons was between the pipes for the Celtics.

The series switched to the Glacier for Sunday night, and the end result was the same, a 5-4 loss. The Blades were in a hole most of the game, with Kyle Pardy opening the  scoring for the Celtics. Jacob Pitcher tied the game at 1, but the Blades were down 3-1 after the first period. The Celtics tacked on another 2 goals before Mount pearl attempted a comeback. Down 5-2 late in the third period, Bailey and Lucas Dearing scored late in the game, but it appeared to be too little, too late, as the Celtics came away with another 5-4 victory. Robert Barrett scored the other Blades goal. Scoring for the Celtics were Pardy, Matthew Oates with 2, Justin LeBlanc and Justin Kelloway. Rodway was in net for the Blades again, while Andrew Stanford played for the Celtics.

In the other Semi-final series, the St.John’s Junior Caps lead the CBN Junior Stars 2 games to 0.

The Blades will look to rebound and get back in the series Tuesday night at O’Hehir Arena. Can the Blades turn the series around? Tell us what you think.

On Saturday night the Mark’s Work Wearhouse Mount Pearl Junior Blades completed the 4 games sweep of the Bell Island Junior Blues by winning 5-4 in overtime. Matt Woodford scored the game winner 2:33 into the overtime period for the win. Aaron Schwartz scored 2 goals for the Blades, with Paul Smith and Robert Barrett scoring singles. Nick Rodway was in net for the win. The Blades were down 1-0 after the first period and down 2-1 after the second period.

The Blades will now play the Junior Celtics in the league Semi-Finals. The schedule has not yet been released by the league.

In the other semi-final series, the Sr.John’s Junior Caps await the winner of the CBN/Southern Shore series. CBN had a 3-0 series lead, but the Shore has since battled back to force a game 7 on Tuesday night