Langton’s Brenner Lammens makes successful transition to ‘The O’

Brenner Lammens (third from left, back row) and his Langton Six-Pack Outliers carded division champion teammates. (Contributed Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Post Correspondent

Equilibrium has been restored in the Lammens household.

Two years ago, Terry Lammens’ team won their division of the Langton Six-Pack hockey tournament, and he chirped son Brenner’s lack of a title for the next 12 months.

Last year, Brenner’s team won and it was time for payback.

Wife and mother Saira is thrilled to report that this April, both Lammens men finished with Six-Pack wins, Terry in the 45-plus bracket, Brenner in the carded division.

“This is nice this year,” she laughed. “Now we don’t have to listen to either one of them.”

Both played pivotal roles in their respective victory, Brenner on a crucial two-on-one double-overtime penalty kill, culminated by a quartet of tremendous saves from goalie Kobe Nadalin. Nadalin’s heroics gave Brenner the chance to retrieve his stick from the corner and poke the puck ahead to teammate Myles Dunn, emerging from the penalty box to score the game winner.

If there was a differentiator, it was the fact Terry had netted a hat-trick in his final, part of a five-goal effort.

“We won’t talk about that,” Brenner laughed, ‘grudgingly’ conceding ‘props.’ “Give him some credit - he’s definitely helped me in my life.”

There was also of course, the ‘small’ matter of Brenner’s preparation for the Six-Pack being his first season in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Sarnia Sting. Being chosen fourth overall by the Sting in the 2025 OHL Priority Selection indicates hockey requires a businesslike approach for the 16-year-old Langton-area resident. However, his joy at Six-Pack competition and bragging rights also shows the sport still remains fun.

“I do it because I love it.”

The transition from AAA minor hockey to ‘The O’ is a huge one, a player like Lammens stepping up to compete against 20-year-old veterans, live, board and attend school away from home and be thrust into the spotlight all at a time they aren’t old enough to get their driver’s licence.

“Everything is on a bigger stage,” said Lammens, who instead of 200 fans in U15 found himself playing in front of 8,000 inside London’s Canada Life Place, his ‘time and space’ limited compared to minor hockey. “Speed is the biggest thing for sure. Speed and size, a lot bigger players.

“They hit you and you feel it.”

His first season could be divided into two portions. In the opening months, he found limited ice time, struggling to find his game in two to five minutes per outing. But with a coaching change initiated mid-November and completed with the hiring of Mathieu Turcotte Nov. 24, Lammens came alive.

“Kind of thrived under him a bit,” he said of a nine goals, nine assists - and 95 penalty minutes - stat line across 59 games. “The nine and nine part came mostly in the second half.

“That was definitely a turning point in the year for me,” he added later. “Just being able to go play, get on the ice and get into games again.”

It was a season of firsts for Lammens, his inaugural assist coming early, catching the puck off the glass, faking a pass to the point before ‘saucering’ beautifully to Jack Van Volsen in the middle. Lammens’ first goal came in the first shift of his sixth game, against Flint, transitioning to offence after stopping a three-on-one at the end of the power play. Following a successful battle for possession in the corner he went to the net, his arrival coinciding with that of the puck.

“It went right off my pants,” said Lammens, who batted it into the net out of the air. “Anything is a goal.”

Technically, his first fight - as his 95-minute penalty total attests, the 6’1” 191-pound rookie didn’t change the physically-aggressive aspect of his game despite playing against much-older opposition - came after levelling an opponent near mid-ice with a hard body check. Lammens never got his gloves off after a teammate objected by grabbing him, the two going to the ice. What he calls his first ‘real fight’ came near centre ice in London after delivering a hip check to a member of the Knights. London’s Max Crete dropped his gloves and came toward Lammens.

“I was like, OK,’” said Brenner of the spirited tilt which ensued.

A Sting roster with 13 rookies listed on its lineup finished with a 21-31-8-1 record in regular season action, out of the playoffs. It was very much a split experience for Lammens, rating his 20 games before the coaching change as a ‘one or two out of ten’, the balance of the season ‘eight.’

“It went pretty well,” he said, noting how three or four games under Turcotte before the Christmas break gave him a chance to reset for a fresh start, carrying positive momentum forward. “I was like I’m playing now.

“I kind of settled in and felt part of the team.”

There definitely was an adjustment to the speed, pace and ‘size’ of the game, one Lammens has acclimatized to. He still feels there is much to learn.

“But on an upwards trajectory, I guess.”

Currently finishing out his school year, Lammens looks forward to playing summer volleyball, baseball and golf with friends, continuing to work out and get on the ice regularly while eying the possibility of playing with Canada’s U18 squad at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

“That would be pretty cool to go to.”

Looking ahead towards next season with the Sting, Lammens has gained considerable knowledge and experience about what it will take to continue to progress. There is no easy route he emphasized, just requirement for the self-confidence to believe in oneself, take a day-by-day approach to improvement and be prepared for what comes.

“Everything you can control, make sure you do that to the best of your abilities,” he concluded.