Canadian teen delivers monster bodycheck to spark goal in Ontario juniors game
Forget the NHL, one need look no further than high school-aged junior hockey in Canada to see the real big hits.
As dug up by Prep Rally’s brotherly Canadian junior hockey blog Buzzing the Net, the monster hit above comes from a Central Canada Hockey League game in Ontario, where the Carleton Place Canadians were visiting the Gloucester Rangers. The CCHL is a junior “A” league featuring solely players age 20 or younger.
One of those players is Canadians hard charging defenseman Elias Ghantous, who clearly is the best clean hitter the league has seen in some time. In the play above, Rangers star Keegan Rowe was attempting to start a push up the ice by slipping alongside the boards. Ghantous would have none of it, completely obliterating Rowe with a clean bodycheck that sent him sprawling and sent the puck sliding back into the safety of the outskirts of the Canadians’ zone.
That’s where Ghantous’ teammates took over, starting an two-man-up rush of their own that led to a quick goal.
According to Buzzing the Net’s Neate Sager, Ghantous isn’t a scorer (almost at all; he has just two goals in 119 games), but he is such an imposing physical presence that he has already earned a Division I college hockey scholarship. The 6-foot-4 widebody has committed to skate at Robert Morris beginning in 2014.
In the meantime, he’ll continue competing for the Canadians, all at the expense of any opponents who have the temerity or momentary poor judgment to try and slip by Ghantous along the glass.
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