MAIN PHOTO: Bedford Baron Dane MacInnis cross checks Rangers player along the boards during NS U-15 game action on Tuesday night in Bedford. (Healey photo)
BEDFORD: It wasn’t the ending to the 2021-2022 regular season the Bedford Barons were hoping for.
The Barons fell 2-1 in a high-energy, hard-hitting contest with rival The Rangers, a N.S. U-15 hockey league rival. The Rangers have players from the Fall River area that are friends with other Fall River area kids that suit up with the Barons.
It was the Make-A-Wish game for the Barons, who had a full house inside Arena A at the HRM 4-Pad, formerly known as the BMO Centre in Hammonds Plains/Bedford.
Max Blackwood of the Windsor Junction area led the Rangers with a goal and an assist for the victory. They had clinched the league title on Sunday in their win against Novas.
Bedford hit several posts in the first while Nolan McLauchlan also made a couple big saves when it appeared the Rangers didn’t have their game legs.
The Barons came out at the drop of the puck ready to play, however they couldn’t bury it. At one point the shots were 10-3 in the second period the shot clock showed for Bedford, but the score was 1-0 Ranger son Blackwood’s tally.
Casey Wentzell scored the game winner with 5:05 left in the final stanza. They did not score into the empty net as they shot the puck wide a couple times and Bedford defenders got in the shooting line to block any shots.
Grant Sexton of Fall River, Josh Hollett, and Maddex Marmulak had the other assists.
Fall River’s Drew Allison had one of the assists on the Barons goal, scored by Schafer Gibbs. The other helper went to Cole Chandler.
The game got heated late in the third period after a nasty looking hit by a Bedford player on a Ranger that saw the latter stay on the ice for a few minutes.
Fans in the crowd (along the board at the score clock end) could be heard yelling at the game’s officials, especially after they only gave a minor penalty for the hit. Those upset felt it was worthy of a major and game misconduct.
McLachlan stopped 16 of 17 shots he faced for the win, while Bedford goalie Payson Stewart was tagged in the loss turning away 17 of 19 pucks sent his way.
