The Truro Bearcats, thanks to a balanced attack featuring 6 different goal scorers and another heroic effort from Louca Connolly between the pipes moved to 2-1 at the 2026 Centennial Cup with a 6-1 win over the OJHL’s Toronto Patriots.
With key contributors Liam Welsh and Callum Aucoin unable to suit up for tonight’s game, the Bearcat depth was put to the test against a potent offense and Truro did what they have done all season long, locked it down.
The Bearcats opened the scoring at the 5:53 mark as Matt Merryweather’s point shot beat Toronto goaltender Nico Armellin clean. The rookie defenseman was playing in just his second game since March 8th with players out of the lineup. After the rest of the first period went scoreless, Eli Baillargeon would extend the lead to 2, picking up his first of the Centennial Cup, finishing off a backdoor pass from Antoine Fontaine. Colton Woods would cut the deficit in half just 26 seconds later beating Connolly clean, but that is all the Patriots could muster as that was the only time the Truro goaltender would be beat, kicking aside 40 of 41 shots during the game. Truro responded with 3 more goals in the second as Ben Lindsay, Austin Hoyt and Drew Keiver would all pick up their first goals of the tournament. After a back and forth third, Truro would close out the scoring on the powerplay just over 15 minutes into the final frame as Samuel Vachon took a pass from Jake Todd and deked out Armellin to make it 6-1.
Connolly earned player of the game honours for the second straight night, making 40 stops in the win while Nico Armellin stopped 30/36 in the losing effort while Trey Caracciolo stopped the only shot he faced as he had to come in momentarily while Armellin fixed an equipment issue.
With the victory, the Bearcats stand at 6 points and sit atop the group alongside Toronto but with tonight’s win, Truro holds the tiebreaker. The 3 other teams in the group all have 3 points. Truro will have a day off tomorrow before closing out their round robin Wednesday night against the SJHL champion, Flin Flon Bombers.