Sports

Caledon Bandits still trying to get on the plus side

May 29, 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart
After taking a loss in their first two outings of the season, the Caledon Bandits put one in the “W” column with a 7-4 win over the Six Nations Warriors last Tuesday (May 13) at Bolton.
As a team, the Caledon squad looked pretty slick, commanding the floor in both the first and second periods. Putting one to the back of the net was a different story.
The Bandits were leading 2-1 at the end of the first on goals from Theo Solate and Austin Heughan. The Warriors evened it up in the second frame with a pair from Lyle Hill, but Solate got his second of the game and the go-ahead goal for the Bandits with 41 seconds left on the clock.
Returning for the final period, Caledon took the game, scoring four goals to one by the Warriors late in the match. Bandit goals came from Heughan, Chris Sehl, Jonathon Ferguson and Brodie McLean.
Overall the Caledon squad out-shot Six Nations 48-32 for the game, and defensively they worked well at keeping the Warriors to the outside and shutting down their offensive opportunities.
“I take wins with a grain of salt,” said Bandit coach Mike Gillan of how he de-briefs players and goes over the results of each game. “Am I happy we won? Yes, absolutely, but, how did we win? How did we come to the end game? There’s always little bits in each period that need to be worked on. There’s always things in each game that we could have done better. They had three break-aways and four shots right on top of our goalie. Our goalie bailed us out. If those shots go in, we lose that game by a goal.”
The squad, Gillan said, is still working out their play on the floor. The team has a lot of new and young players this season.
“I believe it’s strictly chemistry,” Gillan said. “I think that eventually, when our rookies settle in and get used to this league, it’s going to start coming together and we’re going to start scoring a few more goals.”
The squad travelled to Shelburne Friday (May 16) to face the Vets, but this time they came up short, taking a 10-5 loss.
The Vets took the lead in the first period, going up 4-1 by the end of the frame. A second Shelburne blitz in the second period saw four unanswered Vets goals to end the frame.
The Bandits had two final goals in the third period, but couldn’t close the gap and had to settle for the loss.
The Caledon team will be on the road tonight (Thursday) with a game in Hamilton.
They return to their home arena in Bolton this coming Tuesday to host Oakville. Game time is 8 p.m.

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