BRANTFORD – The Brantford Blast has been sneaking up on the first place Whitby Dunlops as the regular ACH Sr. AAA season draws to a close. They got a little unsolicited help from an unlikely source last Friday night as the Dundas Real McCoys, last year’s Allan Cup winners who are presently fighting for a playoff position, fell at the hands of the surging Blast 6-3 at the Brantford Civic Centre Friday night. This late in the season, every point matters.
The Blast are setting their sights on another Allan Cup as Canada’s best Sr. Men’s Amateur hockey team, an honour they last won in 2008. This year, last year’s runners-up, the Clarenville Caribous from Newfoundland, will host the event.
The Brantford offense was firing on all cylinders, outshooting the McCoys 45-25, though it took a period to really start their engines. Dundas took a 2-0 first period lead, with goals scored by Jake Guindon and Chris McGuffin.
McCoys’ Simon Mangos took a holding penalty at 5:13 of the second, which Derek Medeiros capitalized on to get the Blast going. Only five seconds later, Brad Jones evened the score at 2-2 before Mike Burgoyne gave Brantford the 3-2 lead to finish the second frame.
Jamie Williams, Dustin Alcock and Andrew Marcoux secured the win in the third period.
Saturday, in Norwood, the last place Vipers were flattened with a 6-4 loss to the Blast, being outshot 46-22. Even with a skeleton crew of 13 skaters and two goalies, there was no doubt which 13 skaters were the best on the ice. Scoring for the winners were Chris Rebernik, Derek Medeiros, Mike Burgoyne, Kevin Christmas, Joel Prpic, with a goal and four assists, and Ryan McCarthy.
The McCoys and Blast shared a home-and-home series this week beginning Monday in Dundas, before returning to the Civic Centre Friday night for a rematch.
Monday afternoon, the McCoys hosted their 403 rivals on Family Day but the Blast was not in much of a giving mood as they soundly defeated the McCoys 7-3 in front of Dundas fans at the J.L. Grightmire Memorial Arena.
Scoring for Brantford were Chris Rebernik with two goals, Andrew Marcoux, Derek Medieros, Dustin Alcock, Connor Robinson, and Jamie Williams. Cam Sault earned two assists.
The Blast will close out the regular season Sunday, Feb. 22nd at home to the Stoney Creek Generals in a matinee 2 p.m. game at the Brantford Civic Centre. With a streak of wins, the Blast could overtake first place Whitby and take the J. Ross Robertson Cup for their third straight season as the League’s top team.
