The Stephens Equipment Major Bantam Highlanders hosted two home games this past weekend, one at 2:00 pm Saturday against the Burlington Eagles in the Chesley Arena and the other at 1:30 pm Sunday in the same location against the Brampton Battalion.
Highlander's Caleb Stephens checks Burlington's Zach Anderson (5)
The Burlington game started off slow as both teams probed the other’s defense. It wasn’t until the 9:51 mark that the first
goal was scored. Graydon McArthur
(Chatsworth) got the puck to Garrett McFadden (Kincardine) who rushed end to
end, beating the goalie as he cut in front of the net. Near the end of the period, the Eagles got
themselves into penalty trouble and the Highlanders too advantage with the
5-on-3 man advantage. At 4:21 Ben Van
Ooteghem (Saugeen Shores) deflected a Brenden Welsh (Owen Sound) shot from the
point over the defending goaltender’s shoulder for the 2-0 lead. McFadden set up Welsh for the shot. In the second period the Stephens Equipment
team widened the lead to 3-0 at the 11:50 mark during a man-advantage. McFadden and Welsh worked together to get the
stretch pass to Ethan Skinner (Kincardine), giving him the speed to go around
the Eagles “D” for a shot that beat the net-minder. Later in the period, during a penalty kill,
Van Ooteghem blocked a point shot that bounced out the Highlanders end. Pushing it further into the Burlington zone,
Van Ooteghem and Caleb Stephens raced around the visitor’s defense, with the
former beating the Eagles’ goalie who had come out to try and play the
puck. With the two Highlanders going in
alone, Van Ooteghem passed it over to Stephens to put it into the empty
net. Just before that goal, Tyler Fassl
(North-Bruce Peninsula) had made a great glove save, moving across the goal
crease to take away an open net from a stunned Burlington forward who thought
he had a goal. With seven seconds
remaining in the second period, Tyler Rolfe (Shelburne) scored from the left
side on a set-up by McFadden, giving the Stephens Equipment team a 5-0 lead
going into the third period. The final
frame saw the Highlanders content to sit on the lead and held off the Eagles
for Fassl’s shut-out win.
Sunday’s game against the Brampton Battalions started off with the Battalion pressing early for the lead off goal, but it was the Highlanders who opened the scoring at 10:05 during a 4-on-4. Spencer Elder (Owen
Sound) got the puck to McFadden, who carried it in behind the net and fed it
out to Jordan Vanhaelemeesch (Saugeen Shores) in the slot, where a back hand
shot beat the Brampton goalie for the opening goal. That lead stood up until the 10:25 mark of the
second period, when a Brampton forward got the loose puck off the face-off and
beat Nick Redmond (Collingwood) high on the short side to tie things up. At 5:32, with the Highlanders pressing on the
man-advantage, the Battalion broke out and with a two-on-one managed to score
and take a 2-1 lead. Early in the third
period an unfortunate bounce gave the puck up to a Battalion forward high in
the slot, with the resulting goal at 13:23 giving the visiting team a 3-1
lead. Not content to sit back the
Stephens Equipment team fought back, with Elder feeding the puck to Stephens in
the slot at 8:22 for a goal to close to 3-2.
At 2:55, while killing off a penalty, Elder scored to tie the game at
3-3. McFadden and Skinner assisted on
the goal. With the score tied up, the
Battalion pressed and were blessed with the winning goal at 1:46. The Highlanders tried but couldn’t mount any
sustained pressure and good scoring chances this late in the game, losing a
heart breaker by a 4-3 count.
The
Stephens Equipment Bantams have a busy and tough schedule next weekend, with a 7:30
game Friday night at the Joshua Creek Arena against Oakville, a 2:00 pm tilt in
Chesley on Saturday versus the Southern Tier Admirals and then a 6:35 match
Sunday night against the Battalion in Brampton.