Stephens Equipment Highlander Bantams Finish Regular Season With Two Draws, News, Bantam, 2011-2012 (Grey-Bruce Highlanders AAA Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2011-2012 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Feb 19, 2012 | jvanhaelemeesch | 1655 views
Stephens Equipment Highlander Bantams Finish Regular Season With Two Draws
                The Stephens Equipment Bantams finished up their regular season play on a good note this weekend, playing to a 2-2 tie on Saturday versus the Oakville Rangers and then a 3-3 tie on Sunday against the Eagles in Burlington, ending the season with 18 wins, 12 loses and 6 ties for 42 points and a fifth place finish in the SCTA.

                The Highlanders started off well against the Rangers, and about 5 minutes into the first period had a four minute man-advantage to work with when a Range player was assessed a head checking penalty.  It didn’t take long for the Stephens Equipment crew to get on the board as Tyler Rolfe (Shelburne) and Brady Anderson (Arran-Elderslie) worked down low to feed the puck out to the slot where Jordan Vanhaelemeesch (Saugeen Shores) back-handed the puck low glove side for the goal at 9:24.  With the remaining two minutes to still work with, the next line out widened the lead when Spencer Elder (Owen Sound) and Ben Van Ooteghem (Saugeen Shores) worked their magic down low to get the puck out to Caleb Stephens (Collingwood) who beat the Oakville goalie at 8:44 for a 2-0 score.  The Highlanders kept up the pressure for the rest of the period keeping Oakville back on their heels, but with 8 seconds the Rangers got a break and scored to close to within a goal.  The Highlanders line-up was short handed going into this game but with some penalty time and an injury the second period saw the momentum swing to Oakville.  The Highlanders kept the Rangers to the outside more often than not but at the 3:52 mark, after hemming the Highlander team in their end for a long stretch, the Oakville team managed to beat goalie Nick Redman (Collingwood) to tie things up at 2-2.  After a flood between the second and third period, the home team decided to play for the tie and held off the Rangers for the remainder of the game.  The Stephens Equipment team got some man-advantage time later in the game but still played it conservatively and didn’t get the go ahead goal.  With seconds left in the game the Highlanders almost got a lucky break when Anderson lifted in a bouncing puck from a blue line faceoff at the Rangers end.  As it floated in high towards the goal the Rangers goalie almost misplayed the puck when it made a funny bounce just in front of the goal but he got his pad over to stop it from going in.

                Unlike the quick start against Oakville, the Highlanders started off slow, with the Eagles pressuring strongly through most of the period, but with 10 seconds left Brady Anderson (Arran-Elderslie) fired the puck through the 5-hole for a 1-0 Highlander lead.  Graydon McArthur (Chatsworth) had sent the puck into the corner where Spencer Elder had gained the puck and fed the puck out to Anderson.   At 11:30 of the second period the Eagles tied things up with a man-advantage goal; the puck having been won back to the point off the face-off and a slap shot from the defenseman to the top of the net.  A late five minute penalty called near the end of the period came back to haunt the Highlanders in the third.  At 14:05 and again at 13:03 the Eagles scored on the man-advantage to take the lead for the first time in the game.  The Stephens Equipment crew did not give up and with 1:10 left in the game, Ethan Skinner (Kincardine) scored to tie things up at 3-3.  Van Ooteghem and Elder had worked down low to get the puck out front for the goal.  With the game tied up the Highlanders pressed to try and win the game in the dying minutes but couldn’t come up with the winning goal.

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STEPHENS EQUIPMENT
Heavy Equipment Repair Based out of Collingwood Ontario, Stephens Equipment provides heavy equipment repair in the Ontario region for all major manufacturers including Caterpillar, John Deere, JCB, New Holland, Bobcat, Volvo, and more. We are a mobile and onsite repair service. We will come to you. Contact us today. Phone: 705-730-4402 Email: [email protected]