Prince Edward Island waslooking for their second consecutive win at the 2023 Don Johnson Memorial Cup Championship Tournament in Liverpool, Nova Scotia early Thursday afternoon but they got a rude awakening from the Conception Bay North Stars from Newfoundland who jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first period and went onto win 6-2.  Both teams now have identical records at 1-1-0 with Newfoundland and host Liverpool playing a critical game Thursday night at 7:30.  A win by the Privateers would tie them with Newfoundland at 1-2-0 while a loss by the Privateers could lead to an exclusion from the playoff round which begins Saturday afternoon.  Luke Ackerman opened thescoring for the North Stars and 16 seconds later Corey Parsons put the Stars up 2-0 with an unassisted goal.  Owen Sparks then connected on a shot from the point to make it 3-0 Newfoundland. Riley Petten then made it 4-0 North Stars with a shot high to the left side of PEI netminder Noah Vissers.  Matthew King made it 5-0 before the end of the first with a face-off shot which stunned Vissers.  Newfoundland outshot PEI 21-9 in the opening frame.

The second period was a different story as the Vipers who were virtually non-existent in the first came out smoking, outshot the North Stars 15-3 but the game all of sudden became a chippy affair.  Newfoundland took a four minute minor for head contact, then the Vipers took a five-minute major and a game misconduct for head contact.  Reese Wyand was stopped cold by by the Stars Riley Petten.  PEI played short at different times in the second including at one point when they were two men down for 1:22.  Ryder Howatt scored two goals 1:49 apart late in the second leaving Kensington trailing 5-2. Brett Ballum then hit the Newfoundland cross bar with 3 seconds to play in the second.

In the third, both teams skated hard back and forth with plenty of scoring opportunities by both teams with no goals being scored until Kyle Petten and Nicholas Crosbie finished the game's scoring for a 6-2 Newfoundland win.  PEI outshot Newfoundland 17-9 in the third and on the game 41-33.