Brokerlink Boys Defeat Tillsonburg – Will Play Glanbrook in Southern County Semi-Finals
Your Ingersoll Brokerlink Express team
travelled to Tillsonburg March 11th for their final Southern County Group
A Round Robin game. The first place Ingersoll team returned home with a 3-1 win
over the Tornadoes. This game featured two teams that have qualified for the
Provincial Championships. Ingersoll will play for the Atom B Cup, while
Tillsonburg will play for the Atom BB Cup. Defenseman Braden Wright was unavailable
for this game, as was forward Tye House. Wright is recovering from a lower body
injury, and House was reported to have sand between his toes.
Carter “Bones” Spence started in goal for Ingersoll and played two excellent periods before Jeremy Hardeman took over for the third. Both teams appeared exhausted from the long season to date and flu like symptoms that some players were dealing with. Ingersoll inserted AP defenseman Ethan Capern for this contest to fill in for Wright.
Midway through the first, Cohen Belore received a cross crease pass and roofed the puck for a 1-0 Ingersoll lead. With three and a half left in the period, the Ingersoll power play went to work. Seth Hedges fired a shot from the point. Gavin Bryant collected the rebound and quickly made a pass to Alex Schuett for an easy tap in.
Down 2-0, the Tillsonburg team came out for the second with guns a blazing. Spence was at his best to start the period and made several great saves for the Express. Tillsonburg scored three minutes into the middle frame to cut Ingersoll’s lead in half after a flurry of saves by Spence aka “Bones”. With just under six to play, Schuett was chopped down on a partial break, but there was no call on the play. Late in the period, Spence made a sliding pad save on a partial Tillsonburg breakaway. The next shift, Evan Hopson flew down the ice and ripped a hard wrister off the mask of the Tillsonburg goaltender.
Hardy entered the game in replace of Bones in the Brokerlink net for the third and was tested right away. Six minutes into the third, Hardeman froze the puck and was whacked in the mask by a Tillsonburg forward’s stick with no call from the official. Thirty seconds later, Bryant made another cross crease pass to Belore who sent a wrist shot to the same corner as his first goal for a 3-1 lead that became the final score.
Ingersoll defensemen Kaleb Kloepfer, Adam VanDyk, and Benham Martin were solid on the back end for their team. Forwards Cohen Alexander, Owen Longlade, and Brodee Nurse all played well at both ends of the ice.
Other News: First place Ingersoll will play the Glanbrook Rangers in the semi-finals of the Southern County Playoffs. Dates and times are to be determined. Series two will feature Tillsonburg versus Burford. Winners of these two series will meet in the finals for the Southern Counties League Championship.