TITANS SPOIL PARTY FOR HOST PRIVATEERS, WIN OPENER

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Alex Hazlehurst scored twice and added an assist and Damon MacEachern chipped in with agoal and two helpers as the Halifax Titans took out the 2011 TELUS Cup hosts on opening night, beating the St. John’s Privateers 6-3 Monday at Mile One Centre.

The win was the second in a row for Halifax over the Privateers – the Titans beat St. John’s in theAtlantic Regional championship game on April 3, one day after the Privateers got the upper hand in the teams’preliminary round meeting.

With a pro-St. John’s crowd of close to 2,000 cheering against them the Titans struck twice within thegame’s first 10 minutes, getting goals from Ryan Falkenham and Hazlehurst to take a 2-0 advantage into thefirst intermission.

Hazlehurst’s second of the game made it 3-0 59 seconds into the second period before the Privateersfinally got on the board, courtesy of Brandon Pye. Halifax’s Adam Brown and St. John’s Danny Wicks tradedgoals in the final minutes of the middle frame, sending the Titans to the dressing room up 4-2.

Any momentum the Privateers may have had from Wicks’ goal disappeared in the third period, as MacEachernand Jordan Keizer both scored power play goals to give Halifax its biggest lead of the game at 6-2.

Jordan O’Reilly rounded out the scoring for St. John’s with a meaningless goal with seven minutes togo.

The Titans are right back to action in the 3:30 p.m. NT game Tuesday, taking on the Vancouver North WestGiants in the day’s only battle of unbeaten teams, while The Privateers meet the London Jr. Knights onTuesday night (7 p.m. NT) in a match-up of 0-1 teams.