The Stephens Equipment Major Bantam Highlanders started this weekend with a double header against the Halton Hurricanes, playing at 3:00 and 8:20 pm in the Milton Sports Centre.
The first period was scoreless but the Highlanders opened the scoring at 11:08 of the second period when Spencer Elder (Owen Sound) tossed the biscuit in the top cupboard where momma couldn’t reach it after a nice set up from Ben Van Ooteghem (Saugeen Shores) and Hunter Robins-Gibbons (North-Bruce Peninsula). At 6:40 Caleb Stephens (Collingwood) was fed the puck in a sick back-door set-up from Carter Franks (Dundalk) and Graydon McArthur (Chatsworth) during a 5-on-3 man-advantage. A couple of minutes later the Highlanders had another two-man advantage when Garrett McFadden (Kincardine) sniped a goal, assisted by Robins-Gibbons and Darcy Witt (Collingwood). At 7:41 of the third Van Ooteghem widened the Highlanders lead to 4-0 after Nick Redman (Collingwood) fed the puck up-ice. Van Ooteghem finished up the scoring for the Highlanders at 3:56, assisted by Elder. Halton spoiled Redman’s shut-out bid at 3:43 to end the game in a 5-1 win.
Game two started off at a quicker pace for the Stephens Equipment crew when Elder scored top shelf to open the scoring at 13:22, assisted by Van Ooteghem and Stephens. They built up a 2-0 lead when Elder potted another goal unassisted at 7:44. Halton got on the score board during a man-advantage at the 0:01 mark of the first to make it a 2-1 score. At 13:22 of the second Elder continued his scoring ways with a hat-trick goal, fed by Stephens and McFadden. At 11:21, Van Ooteghem widened the lead to 4-1 after being set up by Stephens and Franks. Halton halved the score at the 5:30 mark, but Elder scored his fourth goal of the game at 3:14, with Van Ooteghem and Stephens providing the helpers. Before the period was over Van Ooteghem scored his second of the game on the power play, assisted by Ethan Skinner (Kincardine) and McArthur, with the Highlanders going into the third period with a 6-2 lead. At 14:12 of the last period, Halton once again halved the score to 6-3. Tyler Rolfe (Shelburne) restored the Highlander four-goal lead at 12:16 with helpers from Skinner and Witt and end the game with a 7-3 win. Redman and Tyler Fassl (North-Bruce Peninsula) shared the “W” in the win.
Sunday saw the Stephens Equipment team visiting the Guelph Storm in the Sleeman Centre, home of the OHL’s Guelph Storm. It wasn’t until the 5:39 mark of the first, during a man-advantage, that Guelph opened the scoring. The Highlanders quickly responded to tie the game up 25 seconds later when Van Ooteghem scored on a set-up from Elder and Franks. The Highlanders took the lead at 3:17 when Van Ooteghem scored his second goal with a helper from Elder. At 11:06 of the second period Elder was at the end of a beautiful tic-tac-toe back-door set-up by Robbins-Gibbons and Skinner to give the Highlanders a 3-1 lead. With 6:52 left in the period, Stephens circled around behind the Guelph goal and around the front to beat the goalie with a back-hand over the shoulder to give the team a 4-1 lead going into the third. It wasn’t until the 4:19 mark of the third before the next goal came when Skinner banked the puck in off the Guelph goalie from behind the net, assisted by Van Ooteghem. Guelph scored a short-handed goal at 2:47 but Stephens scored his second of the game seven seconds later, assisted by Witt, to restore the Highlanders four-goal lead. At 1:16 Elder potted his second goal as well, set-up by Van Ooteghem, to finish out the scoring for a 7-2 win. Tyler Fassl played solid in goal for the ”W”.
The Stephens Equipment Major Bantams play two home games next week-end (Nov 19th and 20th) in Chesley against Burlington and Brampton. Please come out to cheer our region’s AAA representatives.
Article written with the help of Steve Anderson