The Tradition of Christmas-Time Tournaments Continues for Warrilow’s Garb and Gear AAA Midgets, News, Midget, 2013-2014 (Grey-Bruce Highlanders AAA Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2013-2014 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Dec 31, 2013 | dvanooteghem | 4199 views
The Tradition of Christmas-Time Tournaments Continues for Warrilow’s Garb and Gear AAA Midgets
The Warrilow’s Garb and Gear Grey Bruce (GB) AAA Midgets continued the tradition of Christmas-time tournaments when they participated in the Cogeco Golden Horseshoe tournament in Burlington over the holidays. 

As the Marlies tournament is the premier Ontario event for Minor Midgets, this tournament is for the Major Midgets. The 20 team, 4 division tournament saw the Highlanders grouped with # 2 ranked South Central Coyotes, #7 ranked Vaughan Kings, Mississauga Senators and Niagara North.

Grey Bruce got off to a great start when they faced the Mississauga Senators and played a solid game at both ends of the ice. Nick Redman recorded the shutout as he turned away all 13 shots leading the Highlanders to a 5-0 victory. Brady Anderson, Ethan Skinner, Ben Van Ooteghem and Joe Heath (2) recorded the GB goals.

The first game of the next day was a much different story. Facing the #2 ranked South Central Coyotes, the Highlanders had their hands full. The game was dominated by the Coyotes but a strong goaltending performance by Tyler Fassl was the difference. The Coyotes scored first but in the third, the Highlanders scored a controversial goal when Anderson and Brady Richards stormed the net after a nice end to end rush by Kyle Betts and appeared to poke the rebound past the Coyote netminder. After some discussion by the on-ice officials the call stood and the game was tied. As badly as the Highlanders were outplayed (outshot 31-18) they had a couple of good scoring chances late in the third to win but equally impressive was the Coyote goalie and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Later that same day GB faced the #7 ranked Vaughan Kings. The Midgets played a much more disciplined and energetic game but the bounces were not on their side. After spotting the Kings a 3 goal lead the Highlanders fought back to come within 1 on 2 goals by Ethan Skinner (one short-handed). In the final minute of the third, the Highlanders’ pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and pressed but Vaughan was able to score once more into the empty net to claim the 4-2 victory.

The amateur mathematicians were out in full force the next day attempting to calculate what GB needed in the final game of the round robin to advance to the quarter final round. The tournament rules saw the top team in each division advance along with four wild cards. With a record of 1-1-1 heading into the final game, the best the Highlanders’ could expect was a wild card spot. The Highlanders took on their SCTA league-mates Niagara North and came out with a 4-0 victory on goals by Andrew Turnbull, Skinner and Anderson (2).

Improving their record to 2-1-1 with a goal differential of plus 7 it was enough to finish 7th overall and advance to the quarters to face the 2nd place Toronto Jr. Canadians. The last time the Highlanders’ faced the Jr. Canadians in the November Ottawa Tournament, GB jumped out to a 3-0 lead only to watch that lead disappear and lose 5-3. They were determined to not let this happen again. The Highlanders’ were down 2 goals early in the second but showed a lot of determination and fought back to tie it up on goals by Anderson and Skinner. Before the end of the second the Jr. Canadians added another to take the lead into the dressing room at the second period flood. With their backs to the wall, GB came out flying in the third and tied things up when Heath jammed in the rebound off a Van Ooteghem power play shot. The game stayed this way until late in the third when the Toronto scored what proved to be the winning goal eliminating the Highlanders from the tournament.

The Highlanders will continue their league play in the new year before heading to the International Silver Stick tournament in Sarnia, January 17-19. Based on their strong play over the past 2 months, the Midget Highlanders were given an early Christmas present when they were selected as one of 6 Ontario and 6 USA teams invited to this tournament. Good Luck Highlanders!
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