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Devils cap weekend sweep of Bulls

PORT McNEILL - Murgatroyd opens 9-2 victory with natural hat trick
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Scott Williams of the Port Hardy Bulls skates past after being stoned on a shorthanded breakaway attempt by Port McNeill Ice Devils goalie Bob Wells at Chilton Regional Arena Sunday

PORT McNEILL — John Murgatroyd opened the game with a natural hat trick and finished with four first-period goals before turning the scoring over to his teammates Sunday as the Port McNeill Ice Devils rolled to a 9-2 win over the Port Hardy Bulls in North Island Commercial League play at Chilton Regional Arena.

The win gave the Devils (3-0) a weekend sweep of the Bulls, following a 5-2 win in Port Hardy on Friday. In other league action, the Port Hardy Warriors edged the host Neucel Islanders 3-1 in Port Alice Friday in the Islanders' season opener.

In Port McNeill Sunday, the Devils took a 4-1 lead at intermission with Murgatroyd scoring each goal and Al Rushton and Chris Dutcyvich combining for five assists in the period.

Dutcyvich and Ryan Rushton pushed the lead to 6-1 with goals in the first 10 minutes of the final period, and any hope the Bulls had of a comeback evaporated when the Ice Devils poured home three more goals in a 15-second span.

Al Rushton potted back-to-back goals at 12:47 and 12:55 of the period. Shae Mattice picked up the puck on the faceoff following his second goal and skated in to rattle a shot off the post and into the net at 13:02.

Curtis Martyn capped the scoring for the Bulls when he slid a shot past winning goalie Bob Wells with just 30.4 seconds remaining.

Scott Williams scored the Bulls' first goal, cutting the Port McNeill lead to 3-1 at 16:16 of the first after Murgatroyd posted his hat trick in the opening 13 minutes.

Dutcyvich finished with four assists for the Devils, Al Rushton had three assists and Murgatroyd added two. Single assists went to Reed Allen, Kurtis Grant and Mattice.

Justin Reusch and Lucas Noel had assists for the Bulls (0-3). Barry Wilson took the loss in goal.