Written by Dave Graff: The SMHA Cherrey Bus Lines Minor Bantam rep team finished
up the seeded portion of the Alliance minor hockey schedule on the weekend with
two ties.
Sunday in London Brady Ballantyne sent Ben ten Hag in on a break away with just over one minute to play and with a nifty deke ten Hag put the Warriors ahead 4-3 over the Purple Mustangs. However, an odd man rush for the home team 30 seconds later resulted in the tying goal, this one ending in a 4-4 tie. Despite some fine goaltending by Tallyn Soper and strong penalty killing by the visitors, three straight London five on three power play advantages finally caught up to the Warriors with Purple fully erasing a 3-0 Stratford lead with just under five minutes to play. Ballantyne added two goals for Stratford for a three point night while Curtis Taylor added a goal and an assist. Patrick Holloway had two assists, Caleb Musselman and Erik Smith one a piece.
Saturday in Stratford goaltender Nolan Traynor made some timely saves among his ten stops in a 1-1 tie with St. Thomas. Jack Whitehead scored for Stratford in the third period on an unassisted rush beating the Star goalie short side to tie the game and help earn a point for the home side.
Stratford sits in sixth place in the 16 team league and will now play in the AA portion of the Alliance loop for the second half of the season.