Stephens Equipment Grey Bruce Highlanders Minor Midget AAA Capitalize on Key Weekend Games
At the midpoint in the South Central Triple “A” (SCTA) 40 game regular season the Stephens Equipment Grey Bruce Highlanders (GBH) Minor Midget AAA find themselves 5th in the 11 team league.
This past weekend they had an
opportunity to widen the 8 point gap between themselves and the two teams
trailing them in the SCTA standings (the Hamilton Bulldogs (6th) and
the Buffalo Regals (7th)) and move into 4th place ahead of
the Halton Hurricanes.
The first match on Saturday against
Hamilton at the Chesley Community Centre was a lop-sided affair with the
Highlanders dominating from the opening face-off. Special teams played a big part as Grey-Bruce
scored 3 times on the power play and once short handed in the 6-1 win. Birthday boy Ethan Skinner scored two
unassisted goals, one on the power play, to lead the Highlanders. Other goal scorers were Brady Anderson
short-handed, Kyle Betts and, Garrett McFadden on the power play and Caleb
Stephens. Spencer Elder, Andrew
Turnbull, Jordan Vanhaelemeesch, Ben Van Ooteghem and McFadden were credited
with assists.
On Sunday GBH travelled to Fort Erie
to take on the cross-border Buffalo Regals.
Even though the jury is still out on whether the decision by the OMHA to
allow the Buffalo Regals into the SCTA on a 1 year trial basis was the right
one, hockey fans can’t argue with the brand of hockey that the Regal Minor
Midgets bring. The previous meetings
between these two teams was played on the smaller ice surface in Ayton was a
tight checking style of hockey. On the
larger ice surface of the Fort Erie Liesureplex, the game was a much faster and
more exciting.
The Regals got on the scoreboard first
less than 3 minutes into the game but Grey-Bruce was able to tie things up
before the end of the first when Trevor Nevidomskis jammed in a lose puck. The game stayed that way until the 4 minute
mark of the second when the Highlanders scored twice in a 20 second span to
take a 2 goal lead. The first of came
off the rush when Van Ooteghem fed Skinner for a one-timer. On the same shift a wayward puck from deep in
the corner founds it way onto the stick of defenseman Carter Franks. Franks made no mistake when he tossed it in
from the point past a screened Regal net minder.
The desperate Regals elevated their
game in the third, had the Highlanders on their heels and scored early to close
within one. In response, the
Highlanders picked up their game to defend their lead; even more so when it
looked like one of the skaters may have had to strap on the pads after Tyler
Fassl went down with what appeared to be an injury that would send him to the
locker room. Luckily, Fassl was able to
shake it off, finish the game strong and cement the 3-2 victory for Grey-Bruce.
The SCTA standings have yet to be
updated after the weekend games, but the Highlanders did what they needed to widen
the gap between them and the teams below and to potentially move up in the
standings.
Article submitted by Dave Van Ooteghem