Majors at an 11-year best

It has been quite a spell since the Timmins Majors of the Great North Midget Hockey League have been at the .500 level at this stage of a season. In fact, not since the 2008-2009 season — when the Majors finished with a record of 16-12-6 — has a Timmins team been at the .500 mark on the first of December.

But here we are, 16 games into the 2019-2020 Great North regular season and the Majors are sporting an even record of 7-7-2. In fact, Timmins is 7-3-0 in its last 10 outings after having started the season 0-4-2 through the first six games.

To be sure, it might be said that the Majors program is in better shape now than it has been in many, many years with 30-year old local product Brandon Perry in his third season as head coach.

A tireless worker and advocate of the AAA program in Timmins, Perry had the opportunity to move up to the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League as an assistant coach this season but opted to remain in the Great North with the Majors.

And Perry is liking the improvement that the Majors have shown over the past 10 games.

“I think being 7-3 in our last 10 says a lot on how well we’ve been playing as a group but as I said before we have a long way to go,” Perry told Hockey News North.

To that end, Perry is looking forward to a pair of home games this week when the fifth-seeded Majors play host to the second-place Kapuskasing Flyers on Thursday night and the first-place Soo Jr. Greyhounds on Saturday evening at McIntyre Arena.

“We need to measure ourselves against the top teams in the league. What better opportunity than to play Kap on Thursday night and the Soo on Saturday night,” Perry relayed. “These are the games that will really give us a good understanding of where we are at.”

The Soo tops the standings with a 15-4-2 record while second-place Kapuskasing has a 13-4-1 mark with three games in hand on the Jr. Greyhounds.

As for Perry and the Majors, the coach wants to see more advancement from his team.

“I am definitely happy with how well we’ve progressed … now we need to steal some points off the top teams in league,” said Perry.

And while happy with the recent overall play of his team, Perry said one line in particular has stood out.

“Harry Clark has been outstanding as well as his line mates Nolan Ring and bantam aged Justin Charette,” Perry noted. “Everyone has been playing well but those three have really been consistent and very good as of late.”