Over the Christmas Holidays the Minor Midgets participated in the Toronto Marlboros Holiday Classic Tournament and though they didn’t get through the first round they showed improvement in the tournament results. The only game they performed poor in was the first game and it may have been Christmas turkey that could have caused the slow start.
It
looked like things were going to turn out well at the start of the opening game
against the Clarington Toros when the Highlanders opened the scoring during an
early power play. It was a nice goal
too, as Garrett McFadden and Ben Van Ooteghem combined with two crisp passes to
set up Ethan Skinner to skate in alone to score. The second period started off with another man
advantage for the Highlanders but things back-fired and the Toros scored a
short-handed goal to tie things up. Late
in the third period Clarington had the man-advantage and didn’t waste it as
they scored for the 2-1 win.
The
second game of the day, versus the Chatham-Kent Cyclones went better as the Highlander special teams performed
well for the most part, scoring three power play goals; also scoring while
short-handed; and scored two others in a 6-1 rout of the Cyclones. The scoring was spread out between Van
Ooteghem, Jordan Vanhaelemeesch, McFadden, Jamison Buck, Spencer Elder and
Brady Anderson, with assists going to Skinner, Vanhaelemeesch, McFadden, and Brenden
Welsh.
Game
three, the next day against the Ottawa Jr. 67’s, started off slow with both
teams playing a cautious game with no score in the first period of play. Then early in the second Ottawa scored two
goals about two minutes apart to take a 2-0 lead, and things looked like they
were heading south for the Stephens Equipment crew. But late in the period McFadden slapped in a
shot from the point on the power play to get the team spirits up. Kyle Betts assisted on the goal. Early in the third period Van Ooteghem
scored, assisted by Anderson and Vanhaelemeesch who worked hard behind the net
to set up the goal scored from the slot area.
Not a minute later, Nathan Roy put the Highlanders in the lead, assisted
by Skinner and Tyler Rolfe and from there everything went downhill for the 67’s. Roy got his second of the game four minutes
later, assisted by Welsh. Caleb Stephens
potted the empty net goal with the unselfish set-up by Elder as they both went
down the ice, two-on-one, to seal the game with a 5-2 come-from-behind win.
With
the loss in the first game, the Highlanders were pretty much guaranteed not to
get out of the round robin and into the elimination round unless they were to
upset the Toronto Marlboros, the tournament hosts and a highly ranked team. The Marlboros play a disciplined and cautious
game, so the Highlanders had their work cut out for them. Only four minutes into the game the Marlies
opened the scoring on a deflected shot from the point, but surprisingly the
Highlanders recovered as Stephens scored from the high slot area, beating the
goalie stick side as he was partially screened by his own defenders. Skinner made the pass to Stephens for the
assist. About half-way through the
second period Toronto regained the lead and that would be all the scoring in
the game. Both teams played disciplined
and good hockey, with the Highlanders defending well; blocking shots and keeping
the Marlboros to the outside and allowing only 18 shots on goal. Only one penalty was assessed in the game –
that to Toronto early in the third period, but the Highlanders could not
capitalize on the man-advantage and so lost 2-1.