Admirals take on the surging Patriots and the struggling Raiders in week of polarities  

By JIM STEWART

It was a week of polarities for the Admirals in terms of both level of opposition and result.

Caledon's Junior A Hockey Club faced off against the top and bottom teams of the OJHL West Division—the Toronto Patriots and the Georgetown Raiders—on Saturday and Thursday, respectively.

Although the 12th place Raiders arrived at Mayfield as prohibitive underdogs on Thursday night and hauled a 1-14-2-0 record into The Icebox, the visitors skated with their hosts in a hard-fought 3-1 loss to the Admirals.

Caledon was coming off an impressive 4-1 win over the third-place Rebellion in King on Sunday and all indicators suggested this could be a blowout loss for the Raiders after the club lost a 13-1 laugher to Collingwood earlier in the week.

Former Admirals' Head Coach Chris Taylor returned to Caledon for the first time as Raiders' bench boss after inducing and exhorting his young Admirals to play .500 hockey from Christmas to the finish line after a tough start to 2024-25.

However, it was Taylor's former team which opened the scoring at 5:11 of the first period when Owen Meli—on Clarence Allain's 14th assist of the season—beat Raiders' goaltender Luke Quinn.

The Raiders tied it 1-1 when James Wong netted his 10th of the year—beating James Meredith at 9:24 of the middle frame.

A significant factor after forty minutes of action was the stellar play of Quinn. It was baptism by fire for Quinn in his first OJHL game. The rookie netminder proved his readiness for Junior hockey by stopping 41 of the 42 shots he faced to keep the Raiders in the contest.

However, Quinn could only hold the fort for so long against the Admiral armada and former Georgetown Raider Nolan Keeler broke the 1-1 tie at 10:07 of the final frame. Curtis Freeman and Cam Lang—with their 16th and 10th assists, respectively—set up the equalizer as Caledon's top line added another important goal to their season-long ledger.

Deacon King's empty netter—with helpers from Allain and Jack Fang—closed the scoring with one second remaining on the clock.

All told, Quinn turned in a heroic 50-save performance for the Raiders while Meredith put forth a steady effort by stopping 31 of 32 to earn the W for the Admirals.

With the narrow victory over Georgetown, Caledon (9-7-1-2) moved back into eighth place in the OJHL West—trailing seventh-place Burlington by four points with three games in hand.

After edging the Raiders on home ice, the Admirals' fleet sailed to Westwood Arena on Saturday night to take on the Toronto Patriots—winners of their last five games.  The OJHL West-leading Pats (18-5-0-0) were out to avenge a wild 7-6 loss to the Admirals on October 9 in Caledon in what could be a sneak preview of first round OJHL West playoff opponents.

The Patriots succeeded in their quest for vengeance by sinking the Admirals 8-3. The first-place Toronto squad led 4-0 after the first period and Colton Woods fired his second goal of the game at 3:13 of the middle frame to put the home side up by five.

Although the Admirals pumped in a pair of power play goals by Jonah Henderson and Curtis Freeman at 6:15 and 12:25 of the second period to narrow the deficit to 5-2, the Patriots kicked off the third period with goals by Alex Hebblethwaite and Hudson Cummins to restore Toronto's five-goal lead.

A third power play goal by Caledon at 11:21—on Cam Lang's seventh of the season with helpers by Clarence Allain and Curtis Freeman—made it 7-3, but the Patriots closed the scoring two minutes later on Ivan Bazunov's marker.

The Raiders return to Caledon on Thursday, November 13 for a rematch at 7:30 p.m. at the Icebox. 

Admirals need billets

Caledon GM Ken Jeysman announced that the Admirals are in need of billet families to care for a growing number of out-of-town players who are being attracted to the club's rising fortunes.  If you are interested in providing room and board for a Junior A Admiral, please contact Ken Jeysman at 289-260-4220 to discuss the benefits of billeting.