Stephens Equipment Grey Bruce Highlander Minor Midgets Play Final 2012 Regular Season Games
Ah – the joys of playing for the Grey Bruce Highlanders. In the South Central Triple ‘A’ loop the Highlanders geographic’s makes scheduling games challenging to say the least. On the final regular season weekend before the Christmas break, Grey Bruce played a late Friday night game in Brampton against the Halton Hurricanes and then less than 24 hours later travelled to their home rink in Chesley to battle the Oakville Rangers.
Considering that most Highlander players didn’t get home from Halton until the early hours of the morning, the follow-up “Secret Santa Saturday” game against Oakville in Chesley was going to be interesting.
With the Mayan prediction of the end of the world on Dec 22, 2012, Grey Bruce like the rest of
the world wasn’t even sure if there would be a game Friday against Halton. The end didn’t happen of course and the game
did and the Highlanders made it count by dominating play from the get-go.
After a scoreless first period Grey Bruce got on the scoreboard early in the second when Kyle Betts got his first of 2 goals jamming in a loose puck recovered off his hard work on the fore-check. His second
came on the power play after Ben Van Ooteghem and Ethan Skinner worked the puck
along the boards before finding a wide open Betts in front of the Halton
goal. Grey Bruce would make it 3-0 when Van
Ooteghem netted the rebound off the Hunter Robbin- Gibbons “clapper” on the
power play with Ethan Skinner picking up his second assist of the game.
In the third, Halton would score early to pull within 2 but the Highlanders would regain the 3 goal lead and cement the victory when Skinner sent Van Ooteghem in all alone. Van Ooteghem took the initial
shot and Skinner following up, finished the play. Jordan Vanhaelemeesch drew the other assist.
Against Oakville, the Highlanders did not show the same dominance they showed the game before but that was not unexpected. The first
place Rangers took it to the Highlanders but Grey Bruce did not panic. Despite
being out-played in the first the Highlanders did get some quality scoring
chances and Nick Redman in goal for the Highlanders was outstanding and kept
the score 0-0.
The Highlanders seemed to shake the cob-webs in the second. The Van Ooteghem-Skinner combination
connected again when Van Ooteghem fed a streaking Skinner down the wing. In full stride, Skinner unleashed a howitzer
that beat the Ranger goalie glove-side.
The Highlanders increased their lead to 2-0 just 5 minutes later on the
power play when Betts’ centering pass found Garrett McFadden at the point and McFadden
made no mistake by burying it top shelf.
The Rangers would pull within one before the end of the second and the game
stayed that way until the 2:36 mark of the third when Oakville got the tying
goal off a point shot that was deflected off a skate in front and the game ended
in a 2-2 tie.
These games wrap up the 2012 regular season games.
They will be participating in the Toronto Marlies Holiday Classic tournament
over the Holiday break before resuming their regular season Jan 5, 2013.
Article submitted by Dave Van Ooteghem