Major Bantam vs. Guelph Gryphons - RS Game#3, News, Bantam, 2015-2016 (Grey-Bruce Highlanders AAA Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2015-2016 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Sep 27, 2015 | Paul Foster | 1260 views
Major Bantam vs. Guelph Gryphons - RS Game#3
The Grey Bruce Major Bantam Highlanders welcomed the Guelph Gryphons to the "Norm" for their home opener on Saturday September 26th.  

The Gryphons finished last season thirty-nine points ahead of the Highlanders in the standings so this represented another great challenge for our boys.

The game was very fast paced from the drop of the puck with some great end to end action.  Matthew Donnelly had to be at his best to turn away several good Gryphons scoring opportunities.  At the other end, GBH generated several great chances of their own and if not for some great saves and a goal post, would have opened the scoring.  For the third game in a row, the Highlanders gave up the first goal when the Gryphs scored late in the first.  Just as in the other cases, this goal against seemed to wake the 'landers up and they came back strong with several more great chances, only to be stymied by some timely goal tending at the other end.  The period ended with the visitors up 1-0.

The Highlanders came out strong in the second, taking the play to Guelph from the opening.  They were rewarded a few minutes into the frame when Emmett Sproule, Nathen Aherns and Cam Lightfoot skated in on a three on one.  Nathan feathered a nice saucerpass to Emmett whose shot was saved but Cam coming in late was able to bang in the rebound to tie the goal at ones.  Several minutes later, Emmett skated in on an innocent looking one on two.  Using the defencemen as a screen he sent a low shot along the ice from just inside the blue line that fooled the Gryphs goaltender and sent the Highlanders to a 2-1 lead.  The team swapped chances for the rest of the period and skated to the intermission with GBH leading 2-1.

A scuffle at the end of the second period, left the Highlanders with only three defencemen on the bench to begin the third and Guelph took immediate advantage, scoring two goals in the space of seven minutes to reclaim their one goal lead.  As they done so several times already this young season, the Highlanders showed great resiliency storming back once again with tons of pressure after a goal against.  A line of Keegan Foster, Tyson Lina and Nathan Aherns was rewarded with a great hard-work goal to tie the game late in the third.  Keegan used his big body down low to take the puck from two Guelph defenders, slid it over to Nathan behind the net who threw a great pass to Tyson in the slot.  Tyson made no mistake firing it home to ensure the 3-3 tie.  

While they probably deserved better, the Highlanders were satisfied with the tie which kept them undefeated so far this season.  Next up is a road game with the Hamilton Bulldogs on Sunday the 27th.