Valley 3, Rangers 1

One more regular season game to go: Kanata on Saturday.

Kingston 2, Gloucester 2

Again, secondhand info here, because I was at work (boo!).

Thirty games down in the regular season, two to go.

Raiders 4, Rangers 3

I'm bewildered.
It's bewildering how a hockey team with such talent as a unit -- passing, shooting, playing like a team, a cohesive unit -- can sometimes forget that.
It's bewildering how the players can forget how rewarding it can be to play as a team, and how good it feels.
It's bewildering how the forwards and defencemen don't seem to realize how awesome our goaltenders are, and how often those goaltenders have stood on their heads to keep our team in the game, or to keep the losses from being massacres.
Sure, you can't win 'em all, but there's no way Nepean should beat our team.
I'm still very proud of the team's achievements all year -- I'm just bewildered.

Rangers 3, Sting 2

I have no details. I wasn't at the game, and relied on a phone call for the score. Thanks, Maureen (Goalie Chris's mom).

RANGERS ROCK!

So proud of a special group of young men

They're known as the Gloucester Rangers Major Bantam AA hockey team. We're just back from the National Bantam tournament in Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, just outside Quebec City.

No, we did not win the tournament, but the coaching staff and parents still have a lot of reasons to be proud of these 17 young men.

It took more than two games for anyone to even score a goal on us, and we ended the round-robin portion of the tournament with nine goals for, and only one against. After a hard-fought quarter-final last night, we moved on to the semi-final early this afternoon. To make a long story short, we lost 4-3 in triple overtime, with the team from Mauricie scoring with 1:51 left in the sixth period of play.

Heartbreaking, yes, to a certain extent. But the grit, guts, determination and commitment shown by our team members demonstrate maturity well beyond their years (they were all born in 1992).

Our team was the talk of the tournament, and the large crowd at today's game, cheering for us, is proof of that.

So apart from expressing my pride and admiration in the Rangers, I say thank you to the people of Ancienne-Lorette, for a super tournament.

The cohesiveness, camaraderie and skill of the Rangers sets them up very well for league playoffs, which start in the next few weeks.

Rangers 4, Sting 1

Great game, big win. It was a four-point game for the Sting, because they would have moved closer to us in the standings and have a game in hand over us.

This was a good warm-up for the weekend. We leave in the morning for a tournament in l'Ancienne Lorette, near Quebec City.

Rangers 3, Kings 0

This was Rangers hockey. We even outshot Rideau-St. Lawrence 38-10. Goalie Chris got his first shutout of the season, at the first game his dad was able to attend.

Next stops: Sting Wednesday night, the the Quebec City tournament next weekend.

Cumberland Barons 6, Gloucester Rangers 2

We dominated the first two periods, but the wheels fell off in the third. Right off the start of the period, Cumberland scored two shorthanded goals on the same penalty. I was looking around for Drew Carey, thinking it was a game of "Whose Powerplay Is It Anyway?".

Our All-Star Line-up

This is from Coach John Yablonski:

This note is to inform everyone of the upcoming all star game being held on January 20th 10:00am in Kemptville; The team selections were made earlier this week.

I'd like to Congratulate the following team members that were selected by the other 9 teams in the league.

They include:

Erik Gudbranson (D)
Patrick Harrison (D)
Patrick Martin (F)
Stephen Fullum (F)
Gurmanjot Bhullar (F)

What John didn't mention is that he and Trainer Bob are part of the coaching staff on the "Visiting" team (dark sweaters). Erik, Pat H, and G are on that team. Pat M and Stephen are on the "Home" team.

Gloucester 3, Rideau St. Lawrence 1

Not a very pretty game, for first place vs. tenth place. All of our goals were on the powerplay -- two on a 5-on-3.