Stephens Equipment Highlanders Finally Have a Good Tournament Result by Reaching Finals!
On the night of Jan 17th the Stephens Equipment Highlanders arrived in Peterborough to prepare for an early Friday 8:00 a.m. start against the Markham Majors in the Midget Tournament of Champions. In last year’s Peterborough Bantam tournament the Highlanders played great hockey and made it as far as the semi finals. They were looking forward to improving their results in this year’s tournament. Other teams in their own division that they were scheduled to play games with were the Upper Canada Cyclones, Thunder Bay Kings and the Peterborough Petes.
Friday morning both teams opened the game slowly with the
Highlanders carrying most of the play into the Majors zone but the shot total
for the first period was a minuscule 3-3 draw and a 0-0 score between the two
teams. Early in the second period the Stephens Equipment team capitalized on a
man advantage situation when Garrett McFadden started the play from behind the
Highlanders goal by making the pass to Kyle Betts along the boards where it was
then was then relayed to Ben Van Ooteghem as he broke up the ice. Carrying the
puck into the Majors end Van Ooteghem directed the puck towards the goal as
Betts streaked in to deflect the disc by the Majors goalie for the 1-0 lead.
The Highlanders kept the Majors hemmed into their own end for most of the 2nd
period - out-shooting Markham heavily - but near the end of the period a stray
shot from the blue line beat the Highlanders goalie to even the score at 1-1
going into the final period. About midway through the third the Highlanders had
their second man-advantage of the game and the power play unit once again came through.
With the play in the Markham end Ethan Skinner stopped a clearing pass from leaving
the zone with the puck bouncing high into the air. McFadden drew it down to his
stick, moved into the slot area and patiently picked the high blocker side of
the net to snap the puck into for the 2-1 win.
Game two saw the Upper Canada Cyclones come out flying and about 4
minutes into the first period they had a 1-0 lead. With almost five minutes
left in the 1st period Graydon McArthur sent the puck down ice where Spencer
Elder picked it up and raced down the left side to get off a shot that beat the
goaltender to get the Highlanders out of the period with a 1-1 score. Early in
the second period the Highlanders got two power play opportunities, one after
the other and in each case scored. Both goals were scored by Garrett McFadden,
with assists coming from Trevor Nevidomskis and Brenden Welsh. The Highlanders
finished off the Cyclones late in the third when Welsh passed the puck up to
Ethan Skinner who chipped it into the opponent's zone. Jordan Vanhaelemeesch skated in alone, made a
move and flipped the puck into the top of the net for the 4-1 final score.
Saturday morning the Highlanders went up against the Thunder Bay
Kings and quickly had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the game, when Van
Ooteghem came out from behind the net and beat the goaltender high in tight.
Skinner assisted in retrieving the puck from the corner. In the last minute of
the first period Van Ooteghem scored again, this time on a breakaway. Anderson and Graydon McArthur assisted on the
goal that gave the Highlanders a 2-0 lead going into the second period. The
Kings tied the game up in the second period, one of the goals scored on the
power play. The Highlanders got the
winning goal with just under six minutes left in the game when Welsh passed
across to McFadden who fired a shot high on net, catching the goalie on the
shoulder and dropped behind him and started rolling to the goal line. To ensure it was not stopped by the
goaltender, Vanhaelemeesch gave the rubber disc some assistance over the line
for the 3-2 win.
Game four of the tournament was against the host team - the
Peterborough Petes – in the Memorial Centre. The Highlanders quickly built up a
3-0 lead before the Petes got on the scoreboard late in the first period to
make it 3-1. The Highlanders went up 4-1 early in the second period but the
Petes came back with two goals before the Stephens Equipment team scored again
to go into the third with a 5-3 lead. Grey
- Bruce went up 6-3 early in the final period but a short-handed goal by the
Petes closed the gap to two goals. The Highlanders returned the favor with
their own short-handed goal with two minutes left in the game for a 7-4 win.
Goal scorers for the Highlanders were Betts and Skinner with two; singles to
Turnbull, McFadden and Stephens. Those assisting were Anderson with two, Buck
with two and singles to McArthur, Skinner, Elder and Vanhaelemeesch.
With the four wins in our division we were assured a game in the
semi-final versus the Eastern Ontario Wild early Sunday morning. Stephens opened the scoring late in the opening
period assisted by Elder and Robins-Gibbons and before the first was over they went
up 2-0 on a power play goal by Van Ooteghem, assisted by McFadden. The high-light
goal of the game came in the dying seconds of the middle frame when Welsh come
out of the penalty box to receive a break-away pass, going in all alone and
putting the deke on the Wild goalie to put the Highlanders up 3-0. Betts and
Buck set up the goal for the assists. The Highlanders held off the Wild in the
final period for the shutout win by Nick Redman.
After winning the semi-final game the Highlanders were going on to
the final of the tournament, up against the Oakville Rangers, one of the
top-rated teams in Ontario. The
Highlanders played their usual game against the Rangers and it worked for the
first two periods, keeping Oakville off the scoreboard and going into the third
period tied 0-0. Then in a one minute span
early in the third period the Rangers scored two quick goals to take a 2 goal
lead. About two minutes later Van Ooteghem scored to close the Highlanders to
within one goal, in a nice set up play by Skinner and Turnbull to get the puck
out from behind the net into the slot area. Try as they might the Highlanders couldn't
get the tying goal though they had generated some scoring chances in an attempt
to even the game up. Final score was 2-1.
The team can be proud of their play in this tournament as they won
five straight games to get into the final and played a low scoring match
against one of the better teams in Ontario.
Way to go Highlanders!