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Bruins topple Chiefs for first place in COJHL DARRYL KNIGHT The Standard
In a game billed by many as the ‘game of the year’ in the COJHL, the Uxbridge Bruins dismantled the Lakefield Chiefs by a final score of 8-2 on Friday, Feb. 1, to wrap up first place in the regular season standings. Over 400 fans crammed their way into Uxrena to witness the final home game of the 2012-13 regular season for the Bruins. With Lakefield sitting just two points behind Uxbridge coming into the contest, the game would ultimately decide who took the COJHL’s regular season crown. Although the Chiefs would take advantage of a miscue in the Bruins’ zone to take an early 1-0 lead, Uxbridge found their way just past the midway point of the first period. The line of Marco Mastrangelo, Tim ‘Honey Badger’ Bierema and ‘Killer’ Korey Brand dished out a dominating forecheck to overwhelm the Chiefs’ defence, and with just over three minutes left in the first, Bierema netted his tenth goal of the season to knot the game 1-1. A pair second period of goals from ‘The Flying V’ Joey Vocino along with a single from Matt Allen gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead with just over seven minutes to play in the period. Although the Chiefs would slip another puck past Branden Francey to cut the Bruins’ lead to two goals late in the middle frame, the Bruins netminder quickly returned to form and made several sensational saves as the second period drew to a close. Just over two minutes into the third period, ‘Stone
Cold’ Steve Douitsis fired a laser beam into the Chiefs’ net to put Uxbridge ahead by a score of 5-2. Allen would follow that score up with his second of the night just 16 seconds later, as the Bruins widened the gap on Lakefield. The floodgates swung wide open just over a minute later when Patrick Morgan stripped the puck off a Lakefield defender and slipped around the goalie for an unassisted marker to put Uxbridge ahead 7-2. With time ticking away in the contest, Lakefield came apart at the seams, and engaged in a parade to the penalty box. That opened the door for a powerplay goal from Callum Lynch, assisted by Morgan with just over five minutes remaining. Lynch’s goal would round out the scoring as Uxbridge rolled to a lopsided victory, their sixth in eight meetings between the two clubs over the course of the 2012-13 season. Following the game, Bruins Head Coach Dan West was elated with the effort put forth by his charges over the course of the season. “Nobody expected this result for this group except for this group,” West said of the team, which featured 17 new players, many of whom were playing their first season of junior hockey. By virtue of their first place finish, the Bruins along with Lakefield - have earned byes in the first round of the playoffs. The Bruins will face the lowest seeded remaining team when the COJHL semi-finals kick off, presumably in two weeks’ time. The win gave Bruins forward and Uxbridge native Mike ‘Rampage’ Ramsey the chance to add an impressive bookend on his junior ca-
reer, as the team also claimed a regular season championship in his rookie season. “I’ve really gone through a phase of being the young guy on the team to one of the veteran guys, and it’s a good way for my junior career to kind of come full circle,” Ramsey told The Standard. Vocino also credited the support of the Bruins’ fans throughout the season with helping the team prepare for games. As a member of the St. Mary HS team that fell in the LOSSA Finals to Uxbridge SS last year, he has seen the effect of strong fan support on both sides of the ice. “Last year with St. Mary, I had the opposite experience, and hundreds of Uxbridge fans were cheering against us, and it was awful,” Vocino said. “Being on Joey ‘The Flying V’ Vocino nets the first of his two goals against the Lakefield the other side is amazing and we really feed off the Chiefs on Friday, Feb. 1, in Uxbridge, as the Bruins prevailed by a final score of 8-2 to wrap up first place in the COJHL. DYNAMIC DESIGNS Special to The Standard energy of the crowd.”
Bean named COJHL’s top rookie DARRYL KNIGHT The Standard
Uxbridge Bruins defenceman Justin Bean capped an impressive first season of junior hockey on Friday, Feb. 1 when he was awarded the Perc Macklin Memorial Trophy as the COJHL’s Rookie of the Year. COJHL Convenor and Statistician Liz Basinger was on hand to award the trophy to the 16-year-old Pickering native prior to the Bruins’ game against the Lakefield Chiefs. Bean joined the Bruins this season after a stellar minor hockey career with the Ajax-Pickering Raiders that saw his team claim an ETA Championship last year. He made an immediate impact on the COJHL, finishing the season tops amongst defenceman in scoring and 12th place overall in the league’s scoring race with 32 points (8 goals and 24 assists) in 40 games played. Bruins Head Coach Dan West
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had nothing but good things to say about the rookie blue liner following the Bruins’ 8-2 win over Lakefield. “We saw Justin’s potential in camp, but I don’t think anyone expected him to do the things he did this year,” West told The Standard. “He worked really hard on his game and had teammates that supported him every step of the way. I honestly can’t say enough good things about him.” Bean admitted that he was surprised that he took home the honour, especially with so many impressive rookies on the Bruins’ roster this season. “It was definitely a bit of a shock to win rookie of the year,” Bean said. “Patty (Morgan) had more points, and (Branden) Francey led the league in wins and goals against average. Either of those two guys could’ve easily won.” Bean was grateful to both his coaches and his teammates in help-
ing him win this prestigious award. “My teammates and the whole coaching staff gave me a great opportunity this year, and I just tried to make the most of it,” said Bean. While the individual award was a great honour for him, he admitted that the larger goal of winning the COJHL championship was of greater importance, and he is already looking ahead to the challenges of the post-season. “The regular season championship definitely meant more. We came in this year with a lot of questions with so many new players, but we really bonded as a team and were able to give back some of the great support we got from our fans with a title. Now, hopefully we can give them another championship in the playoffs.” In other award news, Georgina Ice forward Scott Sandercock took home the COJHL’s MVP award after leading the league in scoring.