Jacks lose some ground after loss to Norwich, postponement vs. Paris

A POSTPONED GAME AND A

loss at home marked a disappointing weekend for the Wellesley Applejacks, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

Bad weather forced the rescheduling of Friday’s match against the Paris Titans, meaning their 8-4 loss to the New Hamburg Firebirds on Saturday saw them lose ground in the PJHL’s South Doherty Division. They now sit nine points back of the fourth-place Norwich Merchants with four games in hand.

New Hamburg’s Keegan Metcalf opened the scoring with his sixth of the season (unassisted) at 6:31 of the first. Tying the game 4:02 later was Taylor Bothwell, who picked up his first-ever PJHL goal in his second career game. That was assisted by Kealan McDougald, who picked up his first career point in his first game.

However, the Firebirds would once again go ahead, taking a 2-1 lead before the period was over.

After Metcalf got his second of the night to make it 3-1 at 7:20 of the middle frame, assisted by Andrew Gear and Tyler Reid, the Jacks pulled back within one at 11:04 on Liam Wadel’s sixth of the season, an unassisted shorthanded marker. But New Hamburg would pour it on, scoring four more times, which included Metcalf completing the hat trick to take 7-2 lead at the break.

Wellesley would attempt to mount a comeback in the third. Isaiah Katsube’s fifth of the year came unassisted on the powerplay at 5:54. That was followed 1:06 later by Stuart Sinclair’s fifth of the season, the helpers went to Connor Doerbecker and Ryan Beckner. However, that rally fell short as New Hamburg’s

Owen Fischer would complete his own hat trick, notching his 25th of the season.

In goal, Graeme Noye would stop 23 of 27 to pick up the win, while Tyson Gustaw and Max Wright would split the duties for the Jacks, stopping 18 of 23 and 17 of 20 respectively. Each team would connect once on the powerplay with the Firebirds having eight chances and the Jacks three.

Next up for the Jacks is a Friday night road game in Woodstock to take on the Navy Vets (7:45 start) and home date with the Merchants at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.