LISTOWEL – Brandon MacDonald has enjoyed getting back between the pipes.
Three months ago the Palmerston native’s second season of Western Junior C hockey with the Wingham Ironmen came to an abrupt end. In early January he was picked up by the Listowel Cyclones of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Although he didn’t see any live-fire action for a while as he worked back into game shape, strapping on the pads and facing talented shooters in practice and pre-game warm-ups was a good experience.
“It’s good to get back in hockey, wasn’t playing for a while,” MacDonald said.
The 18-year-old faced his first GOJHL competition on Jan. 27, coming in to relieve starter Michael Pesendorfer halfway through Friday’s contest against the Elmira Sugar Kings.
MacDonald, who surrendered three goals on 18 shots against one of the Midwestern Conference’s best squads, has noticed a significant difference between facing shots at the Minto Minor Hockey level to Junior C, and now Junior B.
“Way more accurate. Just accuracy and power was the biggest difference from Minto to Junior C,” MacDonald noted. “Overall, this (Junior B) to Junior C is a lot different. A lot more accuracy and speed, for sure, it’s a lot faster hockey.”
Born in British Columbia, his family moved to Palmerston when he was quite young. He attended Palmerston Public School, and then Norwell where he played a season of District 4/10 high school hockey with current Cyclones defenceman Kyle Ellis from Drayton.
The team made it to the regional CWOSSA championship – his Grade 11 school year – falling in the semifinals.
By all accounts his rookie campaign with the Ironmen in 2010-11 was a success. MacDonald, who works at Sprinrite in Listowel, was named rookie of the year at the club’s wrap-up banquet, posting a record of 15-5-1 with a 3.22 goals against average and .902 save percentage....please read more in this weeks Minto Express