The Oakville Rangers Novice AA team started
off the year with an undefeated run to the Richmond Hill Stars Early Bird Tournament
Title. The Rangers won 5 games with one tie to become the Champions.
The drive to the championship started early on Friday morning with a dominate 8 -1 win over the host Richmond Hill Stars. After a close first half to the game the Rangers took over late in the second period and did not look back. A balanced attack with seven different players scoring goals along with a solid defense and goaltending kept Richmond Hill off the score board until late in the game.
Friday afternoon saw the Rangers match up against the Caledon Hawks, the team that the Rangers defeated last season for the Tyke Tri-County Championship. As expected this was a physical game that saw the Rangers jump out in front due to solid fore-checking resulting in several rebound goals from just outside the crease area and a hat trick from Cameron McCully. The Rangers completed the victory with a 7-4 win
Saturday brought the Kingston Canadiens with their undefeated record. The Canadiens took a 2 to 1 lead before the Rangers tied the score early in the third period. The play was back and forth for the rest of the 3rd period without a goal being scored and the game ended up tied 2-2.
Saturday afternoon was a cross over game with the first place team from the other division. The Rangers took on the Newmarket Redmen. The Rangers took a few minutes to get used to the physical game played by the Redmen and were able to win 5-3 to secure first place overall and qualify for Sunday mornings semi-final.
Ready for another early game, the Rangers were up against the Halton Hills Thunder and were expecting a tough game from a team that had the Rangers number last season. The game was well played back and forth with the teams playing scoreless until half way through the second period. The teams exchanged goals within two minutes and went to the third tied 1-1. The Rangers then began to dominate play and pulled ahead 4 to 1 with 4 minutes remaining. Both teams then scored deflection goals to give the Rangers a 5 -2 lead with just over a minute remaining. For any Leaf fans in the stands they could sense the ghosts of a Bruin game past when Halton Hills scored with 63, 30 and 1 second left in the game to force overtime. A scoreless overtime led to shoot outs that saw Ben Theron break the tie, as the third shooter, sending the Rangers to the final with a 6 -5 win.
The Championship game saw a rematch of Saturday afternoon’s affair against the Newmarket Redmen. The game was very well played and saw the Redmen strike first part way through the second period. The Redmen had several more opportunities but were held out by the Ranger goalies that shared duties in the game. The third period was very close except for the playmaking of Matthew Dann, as he completed two end to end rushes, to tie the score and then the winning goal for 2-1 win.
Team members include Goalies Declan Abrahams and Davis Penner, Defense Adam Green, Matt Dubois, Kieran McCabe, Carter Robertson, Tyler Colwill and Matt Dann. The Forwards are Kian Venter, Tyler Roseland –Barnes, Cameron McCully, Ben Theron, Theron Tsiapalis, Nate Calderwood, Chris Araujo, Tyler Makowich and Matt Lewandowski.
The team is coached by Rob Heitzner, Ron Roseland-Barnes, Scott Colwill, Trainer Sean McCabe, Managers Lindy Theron, Jean Roberston, Kiska Colwill and Goalie Coach Stephen Abrahams.
Thanks to the families for three early days and lots of support.