Admirals drop entertaining OJHL Opening Night showcase game 5-2 to Burlington

September 11, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

Braeden Van Gelder and Deacon King sparked the Caledon Admirals offence with two points each, but the visiting Burlington Cougars prevailed 5-2 at the Mayfield Icebox on Thursday night.

The Admirals and Cougars split their season series 2-2 in 2024-25 and the evenly-matched squads served as Opening Night combatants to kick off the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s 2025-26 regular season schedule.

The Junior A squads did not disappoint. They provided the fans assembled with 60 minutes of edgy, entertaining, and fast-flowing hockey.

Admirals’ Captain Braeden Van Gelder, who fired a goal and earned an assist in the first period, was gracious in defeat and liked how his team played on Opening Night.

“We did the simple things well and won so many 50/50 puck battles. Our coaches remind us that hockey is a game of chances and we created those chances. We just didn’t have a lot of puck luck tonight, but we played hard as a team.”

From the opening puck drop, the burgundy and gold-clad Admirals took the play to the white, gold, and blue-clad Cougars. The whole fleet of Admirals were hunting down loose pucks and finishing checks in the offensive zone. Despite Caledon’s substantial edge in play, the Cougars scored first. At 5:16, Will Johnson’s wrist shot off the right wing bulged the twine short side behind lanky left-handed goaltender Calem Yorke to put the visitors up 1-0.

Less than two minutes later, Burlington forward Matthew Campanella sniped a shot below the crossbar and over Yorke’s shoulder from the left circle to give the Cougars a two-goal margin.

Before nine minutes had elapsed in the first period, Burlington defenseman Sean Short feathered a perfect multi-zone pass to Andrew Bowness who skated down the left wing and a fired a wrist shot that beat a shell-shocked Yorke low stick side.

The lightning-fast marker staked the Cougars to a 3-0 lead at 8:38.

The three quick goals impelled newly-installed Caledon Head Coach Joe Washkurak to call a timeout to steady the nerves of his young charges who might have been suffering from some Opening Night jitters.

Van Gelder credited his Head Coach with recalibrating the team during the strategic timeout midway through the first period.

“He let us know there was lots of hockey left and a lot can happen in the fifty minutes remaining. He told us to keep the forecheck up and keep creating chances to score. It worked because we got right back in the game.”

Indeed, Coach Washkurak’s ploy paid off as the Admirals came out of the timeout a committed and confident team. The pep talk yielded almost immediate dividends for Caledon. On a nice setup pass from Jack Fang, Caledon centre Deacon King’s snap shot from the slot beat Cougars’ netminder Carter Vicente at 11:03 to get the Admirals on the scoreboard.

The momentum started to shift back to the Admirals when Cougars’ forward Braeden Burke was sent to the sin bin for a neutral zone tripping infraction.

The ensuing Caledon power play clicked when Captain Braeden Van Gelder finished a nice pass from Nolan Keeler with a laser wrist shot from high in the slot that beat Vicente and pulled the Admirals to within one at 14:11.

After a hard-fought middle frame during which Yorke steadied himself and squared up to the Cougars shooters to keep them off the scoresheet, Vicente did the same with the Admirals.

The athletic Cougars’ netminder made back-to-back saves at 2:07 to keep the home team from getting the equalizer and made a nice kick save before the end of the period to turn aside all 16 shots he faced.

The Admirals outshot the Cougars 31-13 after 40 minutes of play, but trailed the visitors 3-2.

Vicente preserved the precarious lead by flashing the leather three minutes into the final period and repelled a goal mouth scramble by the hard-charging Admirals before the third period was five minutes old.

The turning point of the game took place with the home side on the power play after Jason Zhou was called for hooking with 5:30 left in the third period.

Cougars’ penalty killer Andrew Bowness stole the puck at his own blue line, created a breakaway off the left wing, and rolled the puck barely past Yorke for a short-handed goal. A long goal review ensued but after much deliberation, Bowness’s shortie was deemed fine and the visitors’ fourth goal was etched on the scoreclock.

With 2:04 remaining in the game, Coach Washkurak pulled Yorke for the extra attacker. However, the Admirals lost possession in the Cougars’ zone and Campanella earned his second goal of the game when he slid a 100-footer into the empty net to put the game away for Burlington.

Van Gelder—who finished the game with a power play goal as well as an assist on King’s goal—also delivered his fair share of checks, including one that leveled Burlington captain Reid Forster. It was a complete game for the Caledon captain.

Van Gelder’s squad outshot the Cougars 36-19, but it was Burlington that drove back down the QEW with the W on the OJHL’s Opening Night.