Admirals embrace role as end-of-season spoilers with convincing home ice win over King Rebellion

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Admirals relished their role as spoilers on Tuesday afternoon.  Caledon's Junior A club defeated the playoff-bound King Rebellion 5-2 at the Mayfield Recreation Complex. However, The Fleet could not maintain their late-season surge in a 7-5 home ice loss to the Niagara Falls Canucks on Thursday night. 

The Admirals were eliminated from the OJHL playoffs on Sunday afternoon after a 7-0 loss in Buffalo.    

One of the many positive developments in 2025-26 was the Admirals' dominance of their OJHL West rivals from King Township. In Tuesday's rescheduled snowout contest, ninth-place Caledon skated to its third win in four games this season versus sixth-place King.  By contrast, the Rebellion swept the Admirals 4-0 in their season series in 2024-25.

Cam Lang, who had a three-point afternoon versus King, hit a production milestone with his 50th point of the season on an insurance goal in the third period.

Lang's club got off to a quick start on Tuesday afternoon when Nathaniel Gibbons beat Rebellion goaltender Noah Mavin at 2:39 of the first period.

Six minutes later, Nate Brentnell's power play goal—set up by Xavvier Rowe and Lang—put the home side up 2-0.

King countered with a power play marker of its own at 16:51 when Lucas Manikis slid one past Caledon netminder James Meredith to pull the visitors to within one.

However, Caledon's offense showed its explosiveness with 1:17 left in the first period when Lang and Brentnell set up Nolan Keeler's 26th of the campaign.  Lang's assist was his 30th.

6:04 into the middle frame, Dylan Turcotte—set up by former Admiral Deacon King—cut the Rebellion's deficit to 3-2.

The Fleet showed their resilience less than three minutes later when Lang's 20th earned helpers for Keeler and Brentnell and restored the home side's two-goal lead.

With the visitors pressing at the outset of the final frame, Jalen Lobo short-circuited King's comeback attempt when he finished Clarence Allain's feed at 6:43 to close the scoring.  It was Allain's team-leading 33rd assist of the season.   

It was also remarkable that Lobo's goal was The Fleet's fifth against Mavin on Tuesday afternoon. The Rebellion's rookie netminder is ranked fourth in the OJHL with a sparkling .937 SV%.

James Meredith turned in a sparkling performance of his own—repelling 34 of the 36 shots he faced to earn Caledon's 21st win of the season and improve the club's record to 21-27-1-3. By contrast, in 2024-25, the Admirals finished in last place in the OJHL West with an 11-43-2-0 record.

On Thursday evening on home ice, the Admirals squandered a 3-1 second period lead and fell 7-5 to the 11th-place Canucks.

The red-clad Canucks opened the scoring 4:14 into the first period when Brandon Gauthier beat Meredith, but thirty seconds later, the plucky Admirals tied it when Braylon Masulka redirected a pass from Nathan Gibbons past Niagara Falls netminder John Nanos.

With two seconds left in an Admirals' power play, Jonah Henderson's quick rising wrist shot eluded Nanos to give the home side its first lead of the game.

When Lang tallied his 21st of the season from the right faceoff circle 1:02 into the second period, it appeared that the gold-clad Admirals were skating to their second victory of the week. Allain and Keeler were flying at Mayfield as they earned their 34th and 32nd assists of the season on Lang's power play marker.

After Meredith made five high quality saves to help kill off a Niagara Falls 5-on-3 power play midway through the second period, many at Mayfield believed they had witnessed the TSN turning point and that Caledon was ready to put one in the win column.

Enjoying my hot chocolate and grilled cheese panini on the home side of the rink half way through the middle frame, it looked like The Fleet's 3-1 lead would hold and my late lunch would be my own victory buffet.

Alas—if that were only true.

In a breath-taking collapse, the Admirals surrendered four goals in six minutes. 

Eric Brundl-Pandzich keyed the rally when he burst out of the left face-off circle, and knifed a low shot from just above the crease past Meredith to make it 3-2 with eight minutes left in the period.

Three minutes later, Brayden Scibor created space and beat Meredith from the slot to draw the Canucks into a 3-3 tie.

With 1:34 left, David Greene took a nice feed from Connor Irwin and lifted the puck high over Meredith to give the visitors a one-goal margin.

Gauthier's second goal of the game—a devastating shortie with three seconds left in the second—sent the visitors into the dressing room with a 5-3 lead after their four-goal blitz.

The Fleet regrouped and, with 8:24 remaining, Keeler's 27th of the season pulled his club to within one.

The Admirals' leading scorer, who is 17th in the OJHL scoring race with 60 points, gathered a loose puck off the right boards, evaded the Canucks' defensive corps, and fired the puck high blocker side into the back of the net.

However, the visitors restored their two-goal lead when Irwin earned his third point of the night. The Canucks' forward broke in off the left face-off circle and chipped one over Meredith with 2:43 to play.

Ever-resilient, the Admirals made it 6-5 with 1:50 left on the clock when Brentnell banged in Keeler's rebound past Nanos in a goalmouth scramble with Meredith out of the cage for the extra attacker.

Admirals Head Coach Joe Washkurak called a timeout to set up his tenacious squad's final push. On the ensuing play, Lang just missed the top left corner with the equalizer with 1:39 left.

With Meredith out of the net, Canucks' forward Ben Theron notched his 25th of the season from inside his own blue line when the puck slid over 120 feet into the vacated cage to give Niagara Falls a 7-5 lead with 14 ticks left on the clock. 

The Admirals could take some solace in that they are 18 points ahead of the Canucks in the OJHL West—a marked improvement from last year when Niagara Falls finished 8th and Caledon finished 12th.

However, Thursday night belonged to Niagara Falls for their nervy, comeback road performance at Mayfield.

Caledon closes the home portion of its 2025-26 season by hosting St. Mikes at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 26 at the Mayfield Recreation Complex.