Admirals earn a pair of preseason wins over Raiders prior to OJHL home opener versus Burlington

By Jim Stewart

The Caledon Admirals created momentum heading into the 2025-26 season with a pair of preseason wins over divisional rival Georgetown on the Labour Day Weekend.

The Admirals' home opener is on Thursday, September 4 versus the Burlington Cougars.  Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. at the Mayfield Recreation Centre—a great place to cool off during any late summer heat wave.

Caledon remained as hot as this summer's conditions by ripping the Raiders 6-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Caledon East Community Complex. 

Calume Yorke made 36 saves, including stopping Jackson Bell's penalty shot at 18:46 of the first period, to earn the W for the Admirals.  

Brenden Van Gelider's four-point performance and Clarence Allain's two-goal game paced the Admirals' offence. Van Gelider's goal at 19:40 of the first period gave the Admirals at 1-0 lead, but James Wong beat Yorke to tie the game at 4:11 of the second period.

It was the only shot to elude Yorke who turned aside 29 of 30 Raider shots in the first forty minutes of play to keep his team in the game.

It was all Admirals after Wong's tying goal. Xavier Rowe and Alain's power play goal at 5:35 and 8:44, respectively, provided Caledon with a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.  Van Gelider earned assists on both the home side's goals in the second period.

Two goals in the first five minutes of play in the final frame sealed the deal for the Admirals.

Shots by Zach Grant and Deacon King found the back of the net past Raider goaltender Ethan Laughlin and expanded Caledon's lead to 5-1. Alain finished the scoring at 18:01 with Van Gelider earning his third assist of the contest.

The Admirals' defence buckled down in the third period—limiting the Raiders to eight shots on net.

On Friday night in Georgetown, the Admirals opened the scoring when Nolan Keeler beat Raiders' keeper Ivan Kastelan at 9:01. The Raiders rallied with a pair of goals by Kailyn McQueen and former Admiral defender Ayden Agius to take a 2-1 lead into the second period.

Keeler and Agius were the main pieces swapped in a trade between the Admirals and the Raiders during the off-season.

Three unanswered goals in the middle frame restored Caledon's lead.

Two of the three were scored by Ryan Heaney four minutes apart to put the Admirals up 3-2 and Zahkar Puzinkou's power play marker at 11:24 provided Caledon with a two-goal lead after forty minutes of play.

Georgetown's Jacob Carroll scored with 20 seconds left in the game to reduce the home side's deficit to one, but Admirals' netminder Gabe Donahue held off the final charge to earn the W.  Donahue turned aside 41 of 44 shots to make a quality start for Caledon. 

Caledon General Manager Ken Jeyesman said he was pleased with his team's performances versus the Raiders—a team that his squad will have to hop over in the standings if the Admirals hope to return to the playoffs in 2025-26.

“We have more experience than last year. The boys are putting way more pucks in the net, and they went to the net for rebounds to create more chances this weekend. Overall, we are bigger and stronger this season.  We are also moving the puck faster out of our zone.”

The Admirals gained more experience behind the bench as well as on the ice when third-year coach Chris Taylor left Caledon to accept the Head Coaching position with Georgetown.

Jeyesman discussed his club's biggest changes over the offseason: “Our new Head Coach is Joe Washkurak.  We felt we just needed more experience on the bench.  Joe has thirteen years' experience in the league and has been a scout for the Oshawa Generals for fourteen years. We also traded Ayden Agius to Georgetown for a goal-scorer, Nolan Keeler. We have many returning players and have made other changes.  We're looking forward to an exciting season.”