This past weekend the Squire John’s Minor Bantams participated in the SCTA Minor-Bantam OMHA Qualifier Tournament in Welland. They played a round robin with Brampton, St. Catharines, Welland and Burlington where the top two teams would face off against the top two teams from the round robin group of Oakville, Hamilton, Guelph, Halton and Niagara Falls – first and second place teams from each round “criss-crossing” to play-off for a chance to move on to the OMHA AAA Championships in Kingston.
Friday saw the Squires facing the Burlington Eagles and the Brampton Battalion respectively. In game one Burlington opened the scoring at the 8:34 mark of the first period, with the Highlanders evening the score in the second period at 4:52 on a goal by Ben Van Ooteghem (Saugeen Shores), assisted by Logan Davidson (Creemore) and Hunter Robins-Gibbons (North-Bruce Peninsula). Burlington then struck for two more goals before the period ended to take a 3-1 lead into the third period. The first two periods the teams were fairly evenly matched, but the third period was dominated by the Highlanders with a number of excellent chances, but they could only beat the Eagles goaltender once - on a Garrett McFadden (Kincardine) goal, assisted by Hugh Murray (Beaver Valley) and Jamie Little (Grand Valley) – ending up on the short end of a 3-2 score.
Game two saw the Highlanders open the scoring at 10:41 of the first period on a goal scored by Spencer Elder (Owen Sound), assisted by Darcy Witt (Collingwood). Brampton quickly replied with a goal 34 seconds later to tie things up at 1-1. Early in the second period, Brampton capitalised on a couple of chances at 13:17 and 10:37 to open up a 3-1 lead. Ben Van Ooteghem narrowed it to 3-2 at the 9:32 mark, when he re-directed a Jamison Buck (Collingwood) slap-shot from the blue line to beat a hot Brampton goalie. Caleb Stephens (Collingwood) assisted on the play. The third period saw things tighten up a bit as Brampton went to a more defensive mode, with the Highlanders carrying most of the play in the Brampton end. With the Highlanders goalie pulled in an attempt to tie the game up, Brampton was able to break the game open scoring an empty-net goal to end the game at 4-2, giving the Squire John’s their second loss.
The Highlanders played good enough to win either of the two games, having hit a few goal posts and having had a number of break-away rushes. The puck just didn’t bounce right when required and so things didn’t look good for the Highlander team going into Saturday: they had to win both of the remaining games on Saturday; hope Brampton would help out by winning both of their games; and also depend on Welland to keep Burlington from winning.
Game three on Saturday was against St Catharines, who had won both of their games on Friday, and so things started off tentatively, ending with a scoreless first period. The second period was a complete turn-around, with five goals being scored in a flurry in the last six minutes of that frame. It opened at 6:02 with a Brady Anderson (Chesley) power-play goal, assisted by Garrett McFadden. Then St Catharines replied with their own PPG at 4:42. Ben Van Ooteghem restored the Highlander lead at 2:15, assisted by Caleb Stephens and Logan Davidson. St Catharines tied it up at 0:43, but Van Ooteghem quickly restored the lead 10 seconds later; again assisted by Stephens and Davidson.
The third period saw Darcy Witt widen the Highlander lead to 4-2 on a power play goal, assisted by Spencer Elder and Garrett McFadden. St Catharines narrowed it to a 4-3 score with their own PPG at 7:41. The Falcons pulled their goalie near the end of the game in a bid to tie, but the Squire John’s were up to the task of shutting the opponents down for their first win of the tournament.
By the time game four against Welland came around, Burlington had tied Welland and lost to Brampton. The Highlanders only had to win this game and hope Brampton won over St Catharines, so the boys had incentive to play well. Late in the first period Caleb Stephens scored the opening goal, assisted by Ben Van Ooteghem. At 8:37 Van Ooteghem teamed up with Stephens and Logan Davidson to make it a 2-0 lead for the Squire John’s. At the 9:17 mark of the third period, Brady Anderson worked with Jordan Vanhaelemeesch (Saugeen Shores) to widen the lead to 3-0 and at 4:25 Spencer Elder potted the fourth Highlander goal, assisted by Darcy Witt and Anderson. Aaron Johnston played solidly for the shut-out win.
With Brampton winning 3-0 over St Catharines, the Highlanders got to go on to the Sunday game against the Oakville Rangers, who had finished first in their round robin. Things didn’t start well for the Highlanders, when not even 30 seconds into the game they received a penalty. With seconds left in the power-play, Oakville scored to quickly take a 1-0 lead at the 12:40 mark. Just over two minutes later Oakville was once again with the man-advantage – in this case a 5-on-3 edge – and at 9:43 had a 2-0 lead. The Highlanders killed off the remaining penalty, but at 7:43 Oakville again scored to take a 3-0 lead. Things looked even bleaker when the Rangers potted another goal to widen the lead to 4-0. Late in the first period, Oakville drew three consecutive penalties such that the Highlanders had a 5-on-3 man advantage at the end of period one and going into the second period.
At 13:44 the Highlanders got some life from the man-advantage when Brady Anderson scored, assisted by Marshall Smith (Kincardine) and Spencer Elder. With things starting to swing their way, Caleb Stephens scored at 8:25 to narrow the score to 4-2. Van Ooteghem and Davidson assisting on the goal. At the 6:11 mark the Highlanders closed to within 4-3 of the Rangers with Stephens teaming up with Van Ooteghem and Davidson.
Things stayed that way until 6:22 of the third period when Oakville scored on a deflected slap-shot to widen the score to 5-3. Up to that point the Oakville team and fans were getting pretty tense about things and when Oakville received a penalty at 5:42, the Highlanders had the chance to narrow the lead again. Oakville killed off the penalty and shortly after scored at 3:14. Before the Highlanders could recover the Rangers scored again at 2:48 to take a 7-3 lead that would last to the end of the game.
Despite the loss in the SCTA qualifier final for the OMHA Championship Finals, the Highlanders Squire John’s Minor Bantams can take satisfaction in a better than expected season and with hopes for more success next season. The coaching staff and players should be proud of the way they played throughout the season and the play-offs. They never gave up and worked hard to improve all year, starting with the team selections last spring, up to the final game.
With a final note, Brampton went on to win 4-1 over the Hamilton Bulldogs, so it will be the Oakville Rangers and the Brampton Battalion going to represent our SCTA league in the OMHA Cahmpionship Finals in Kingston next weekend. Congratulations and good luck to both teams and may one of them come home with a championship title.