Stephens Equipment AAA Highlanders Compete at the Toronto Marlboro Holiday Classic
The Stephens Equipment Grey-Bruce Highlanders Bantams played in the Toronto Marlboro Holiday Classic Tournament, starting with an 11:05 game on Dec 27th at the Canlan York University Arena against the Buffalo Regals.
The game started off evenly matched, with a goal at 3:25 by Caleb Stephens (Collingwood), assisted by Ben Van Ooteghem (Saugeen Shores) and Garrett McFadden (Kincardine). The second period went scoreless, though the Highlanders carried most of the play to the Regals, but couldn’t finish widening the lead. At 14:31 of the third period the Buffalo Regals scored, jamming what appeared to be a covered puck into the net to tie the score at 1-1. At 10:49, while the Highlanders had the man-advantage, the Regals broke out of their end on a breakaway and scored to take a 2-1 lead. That goal seemed to take the wind out of the Highlanders sails, and at 8:39 the Regals took advantage and scored again to take a 3-1 lead.
The Stephens Equipment crew’s next game started at 5:15 pm in the Canlan York rink against the Vaughn Kings, currently ranked 3rd in Ontario. The Highlanders got the first goal at 05:18 - scored by Spencer Elder (Owen Sound) with the assist coming from Grayden McArthur (Chatsworth). That goal seemed to wake up the Kings and they went on a scoring spree, scoring three goals before the end of the period – at 3:30, 1:20 and 0:16 - to assume a healthy 3-1 lead. The Vaughn Kings kept up the attack, scoring two short-handed goals at 11:44 and 10:52 of the second period to widen the lead to 5-1 and then two more before the end of the period at 2:01 and 1:02. The third period was quiet from the Vaughn side and at 3:50 Garrett McFadden fired a shot into the net for the 7-2 final score. Elder got the assist on the play.
The next day the Highlanders played the Nickel City Sons in a 9:40 am tilt. Once again, the Stephens Equipment crew opened the scoring in the first period when Van Ooteghem scored at 3:51 on the man-advantage. Jordan Vanhaelemeesch (Saugeen Shores) and Stephens assisted on the goal. The Sons quickly responded with their own goal on the next shift to even the score at 3:34. Early in the second period, Carter Franks (Dundalk) fired a high “wrister” from the point to beat the Sons goalie over his glove hand at 13:17 to restore the lead for the Highlanders. The Sons evened the score up at 9:51, but the Highlanders Brady Anderson (Chesley) fired his own high, partially screened shot from just inside the Sons’ blue line to restore the lead for the Stephens Equipment team. Jamison Buck (Collingwood) and Franks assisted on the goal. The Highlanders were not going to get the win though as the Nickel City Sons’ #11 scored his hat-trick goal at 6:35 to tie the game at 3-3. Tyler Fassl (North-Bruce Peninsula) played a solid game in net for the Highlanders.
The Stephens Equipment team played their fourth game of the tournament against the Waterloo Wolves. By this time it was apparent the team was not going to be advancing any further in the tournament, but Waterloo wanted to win this bad and were expected to be tough. For the fourth time in this tournament the Highlanders opened the scoring at 1:10 of the first period, with Ethan Skinner (Kincardine) beating the Wolves goalie, assisted by Anderson and Elder. The second period remained a closely played match, but the Wolves took advantage of a power play to score at 11:57 to even the score up at 1-1. At 7:18 the Wolves moved ahead 2-1 and then at 5:51 of the third widened the lead to 3-1 for the win. Nick Redman (Collingwood) played a good game, coming up with a couple of big saves in a fairly evenly matched game.