On Sunday, January 2nd the Grey-Bruce Highlanders AAA Minor Bantams had the St Catharines Falcons visiting in Chesley. The previous two meetings had the Highlanders come out on top with 3-0 wins and with this game the Squire John’s hoped to stretch the season’s series to 3-0.
The first period started off well for the Highlanders and at 3:31 Ethan Skinner (Kincardine) opened the scoring when Jamieson Buck (Collingwood) stopped a St Catharines break-out play at the blue line, knocking the puck over to Skinner, who fired a wrist shot past the outstretched glove of the Falcons goalie.
At 14:17 of the second Garrett McFadden (Kincardine) started off the next goal by whipping the puck behind the Highlanders net along the boards to Ben Van Ooteghem (Saugeen Shores), who carried the puck down ice on the left side into the Falcons end. At the point of being checked off the puck, Van Ooteghem passed the puck over to Jordan Vanhaelemeesch (Saugeen Shores) who was coming down the right side. Vanhaelemeesch then snapped the puck from the right face-off dot to the inside of the far goal post, giving the Highlanders a 2-0 lead.
At 13:26 of the third period – with the man-advantage – Hugh Murray (Beaver Valley) was fighting for the puck along the left boards. Caleb Stephens (Collingwood) went in to support and came away from the corner with the puck. From there he moved into the slot and then wired a shot past the Falcons goalie’s blocker to widen the Highlanders lead to 3-0. Short-handed at 8:31, Van Ooteghem got hold of the puck, carried it to the Falcons blue line and passed it to a streaking McFadden who went in alone and deked out the Falcons goalie to make it a 4-0 lead. St Catharines broke the shutout bid of Aaron Johnson (Chatsworth) at 4:57 to end the game at 4-1 for the Highlanders.
The Squire John’s next game is on Saturday, January 8th in Hamilton against the Bulldogs and Sunday, January 9th in Chesley at 2:30 against the Welland Tigers.