Talk of the Town climbing town league hockey ranks

The Brit gets an assist

Town league continues to ramp up in intensity as low snow and cold nights leave nothing left to do but play hockey, and the Talk of the Town is taking full advantage of the situation.
After dropping its first game of the season, the Talk has rattled off three wins in a row, including a 4-2 win over High Country Capital Management Tuesday night at Big Mine Ice Arena.
High Country has had a rough go of it in their rookie franchise season. Tuesday night was the team’s fourth loss of the season. On a good note, they doubled their offensive output for the season in the loss so it could bode well for a late season run. Could…
The Talk has a solid roster of quality town league talent, including the Bramwell brothers Kevin and Rob, veteran skater Jack Gibbons, Tyler “Tsunami” Hammer and the added advantage of Ashley Brown, who plays perfect position hockey on defense yet is not afraid to penetrate when the opportunity arises.
The Talk opened the game dominating a seemingly confused High Country squad. As the Talk surged, High Country had a handful of opportunities to counter but seemed to fall apart upon entering the offensive zone.
After several failed attempts on net and some quality goaltending from High Country goalie Jared Tisdale, the Talk finally broke the scoreless tie six minutes into the game when Hammer dropped the puck to Kevin for a blast from the point and a 1-0 lead.
Greg Schroeder did what he could to try to break up the Talk’s attack with scrappy hustle but the effort earned him a penalty at the end of the first period that carried over into the second period after he expressed his dismay with officials about the call.
Another High Country penalty 30 seconds into the second period gave the Talk a two-man advantage and that’s when Brown struck.
As the Talk floundered in its initial powerplay, Brown took matters into her own hands and skated with the puck in off the blue line to bury it upper 90 for a 2-0 Talk lead.
High Country pulled it together to close the second period strong with frantic forechecking and firing shots, but came up empty.
Rob then struck in the opening minute of the third period, taking a pass from Pete Sowar and scoring for a 3-0 Talk lead.
Thirty seconds later, brother Kevin skated through neutral ice and just inside the blue line to score his second goal of the game, putting the Talk on top 4-0.
But before things went from bad to worse for High Country, the team seemed to rally in the face of adversity.
The Talk’s effort turned noticeably lax and High Country came alive, led by none other than James Young. Young, relatively new to the sport having grown up across the pond, has vastly improved his game from last year. He proved it when he took the puck to goal to fire a shot, followed his rebound to win the puck back and set up Colby Deer in the slot for High Country’s first goal of the game and third of the season.
Two minutes later, High Country struck again when Daniel Larsen fired a low blast from the point to light the lamp and cut the Talk’s lead down to two with five minutes left.
The second goal woke the Talk up and they countered with a series off one-man rushes, but Tisdale was there to deny and High Country continued to gain steam. James Brennan battled up and down the ice for the puck, Angie Booth held the puck in the offensive zone with stout play at the blue line, and High Country was set up for two more golden opportunities but the Talk held off the late surge for the 4-2 win.