League Recap, Week 3: Dieppe / Memramcook and Shediac / Cap-Pelé level at the top

For the first time this season, there is a race at the top of the U 13 AA standings. Dieppe / Memramcook and Shediac / Cap-Pelé finished Week 3 with identical 3–0–1 records and seven points each, three points clear of everyone else.

It was the busiest week of the season so far: six games, 35 goals and two more ties. Lewisville was the week's big climber, jumping from sixth to fourth, the Blues took their first league win in a run of three games in five days, and Dieppe / Memramcook posted the most lopsided result of the season.

Two at the top

Dieppe / Memramcook played once and made it count. On Sunday afternoon in Richibucto it beat Kent Centre 9–1. The eight-goal margin is the largest of the season, and its nine goals tie the most by any team in a game, matched only by Shediac / Cap-Pelé's nine against the same Kent Centre team in Week 1.

Dieppe / Memramcook has now played all four of its league games on the road and is unbeaten in them, with 22 goals for and four against. Two of its three wins have been shutouts.

Shediac / Cap-Pelé played twice. On Monday it scored three straight goals to beat Riverview 4–2 in Riverview. On Saturday at home it was held to a 2–2 tie by Lewisville, the first points it has dropped this season. The result ended the division's last perfect record, but it still moved Shediac / Cap-Pelé level with the leaders on seven points.

The two are listed with Dieppe / Memramcook first. The gap between them is in goal differential: +18 for Dieppe / Memramcook, +7 for Shediac / Cap-Pelé.

The Blues: three games in five days

Riverview was the busiest team in the division, and the week brought one of everything.

On Monday the Blues led Shediac / Cap-Pelé 2–1 in the second period before the Prédateurs scored three unanswered goals to win 4–2, Riverview's first loss of the season. On Thursday in Moncton, Lukas Pineau's power-play goal late in the second put the Blues ahead, and the Hawks tied it in the third for a 2–2 tie. On Friday in Richibucto, Charlie Lavoie scored twice and the Blues did not take a penalty in a 4–2 win over Kent Centre, their first league win.

At 1–1–3 the Blues are third with five points. They have scored 11 and allowed 11, and they have played five league games, more than any other team. Their games have been the tightest in the division: three of the five ended in ties, none has been decided by more than two goals, and they have averaged 4.4 goals a game against a league average of 5.8.

Lewisville climbs

No team moved further this week than Lewisville. On Saturday in Cap-Pelé it became the first team to take a point from Shediac / Cap-Pelé, in a 2–2 tie. On Sunday night at the Kay Arena it beat Kent Sud 4–1 for its first win of the season.

That is three points from two games, and a jump from sixth to fourth, one point behind Riverview. After losing at home to Dieppe / Memramcook in Week 2, Lewisville is unbeaten in its last two.

The rest of the division

Moncton played once, a 2–2 tie with Riverview at the 4 Plex. Both of its league games have ended in ties, and with only two games played, the fewest in the division, it has games in hand on everyone. It is one of three teams without a loss, with Dieppe / Memramcook and Shediac / Cap-Pelé.

Kent Centre played its first two home games of the season in Richibucto and lost both, 4–2 to Riverview on Friday and 9–1 to Dieppe / Memramcook on Sunday. It has allowed 23 goals in four games, the most in the division, including nine in each of two of them.

Kent Sud lost 4–1 at Lewisville in its first road game and is still looking for its first point, the only team in the division without one. Its three goals in three games are the fewest scored.

Who moved

• Up: Lewisville, from sixth to fourth (1 point to 4). Shediac / Cap-Pelé stays second but is now level on points with first.
• Holding: Dieppe / Memramcook stays first. Riverview stays third and closed the gap to first from three points to two.
• Down: Moncton, from fourth to fifth, and Kent Centre, from fifth to sixth. Kent Sud stays seventh.

The numbers behind the table

Four or five games is a small sample, so read the trends below as early signals rather than verdicts.

Goals per game, for and against:

• Dieppe / Memramcook: 5.50 for, 1.00 against (+18)
• Shediac / Cap-Pelé: 4.50 for, 2.75 against (+7)
• Moncton: 2.50 for, 2.50 against (even)
• Kent Centre: 2.25 for, 5.75 against (−14)
• Riverview: 2.20 for, 2.20 against (even)
• Lewisville: 2.00 for, 2.50 against (−2)
• Kent Sud: 1.00 for, 4.00 against (−9)

Share of the goals. Dieppe / Memramcook has scored 84.6 percent of the goals in its games, a dominant number. Shediac / Cap-Pelé is next at 62.1. Riverview and Moncton sit at exactly 50, Lewisville at 44.4, Kent Centre at 28.1 and Kent Sud at 20.0.

Points versus goals. A simple way to see who is getting the bounces is to compare a team's points percentage (the "Win %" column, points earned out of points available) with what its goals for and against would predict. The formula, borrowed from baseball analytics and often applied to hockey, is goals for squared divided by goals for squared plus goals against squared.

• Dieppe / Memramcook: .875 in the standings, .968 by its goals. If anything, its record undersells it.
• Shediac / Cap-Pelé: .875 in the standings, .728 by its goals. It has turned close games into points: a 3–2 win, a 4–2 win and a 2–2 tie.
• Lewisville: .500 in the standings, .390 by its goals.
• Riverview and Moncton: .500 on both counts, exactly where their even goal totals say they should be.
• Kent Centre (.125 and .133) and Kent Sud (.000 and .059) have records that match their goals.

Road teams rule. In 13 league games, home teams are 2–6–5 and road teams 6–2–5. Dieppe / Memramcook has yet to play at home.

A league of ties. Five of the 13 games have ended level, 38 percent. Riverview has been in three of them and Moncton in two.

By the numbers

• 7: points for both Dieppe / Memramcook and Shediac / Cap-Pelé, level at the top.
• 9–1: Dieppe / Memramcook's win in Richibucto, the season's largest margin.
• 35: goals in Week 3's six games, 5.8 a game.
• 76: goals in the division's first 13 games.
• +18: Dieppe / Memramcook's goal differential; no one else is better than +7.
• 3: points for Shediac / Cap-Pelé, Riverview and Lewisville this week, the most of any team.
• 3: teams without a loss: Dieppe / Memramcook, Shediac / Cap-Pelé and Moncton.
• 5: league games played by Riverview, the most in the division; Moncton has played two.
• 2–6–5: the home teams' combined record.
• 0: points for Kent Sud, the only team without one.

Where things stand

The full standings are above. Dieppe / Memramcook and Shediac / Cap-Pelé lead on seven points, Riverview is third on five and Lewisville fourth on four. Moncton has two points from two games, Kent Centre one and Kent Sud none.

Games played still range from Moncton's two to Riverview's five, so the table will keep shifting as the schedule evens out.

League Recap runs every week of the season, with the week's scores and the updated standings.

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