Current & Past Articles » Sports

Caledon Admirals close home portion of regular season with decisive 5-2 victory over Cougars

March 6, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

The Caledon Admirals defeated the Burlington Cougars 5-2 on Thursday night to complete the home portion of their OJHL regular schedule on a high note.

Admirals Head Coach Chris Taylor attributed the victory at The Icebox to a confluence of factors.

“The guys really rallied around our last home game of the season. They all played really well and it was good to see that they have stayed focused. It was also a full effort on defense and when there were letdowns defending, [Blake]Sloan was there to make a big save for us.”

Sloan was up to the task of stealing a win from the sixth-place Cougars by stopping 33 of the 35 shots he faced. Coach Taylor assessed his rookie goaltender’s performance: “Sloan was really good. He was confident, he was able to slow the game down for us, and he made the saves he had to make. The last time he played Burlington, we relied on him to make some really acrobatic saves, but tonight it was less spectacular because we played better defensively.  He plays the puck so well and neutralized Burlington’s forecheckers tonight.”

The Admirals supported Sloan with a lightning-fast start versus the Cougars (31-20-3-2). Thirty-five seconds into the game, Curtis Freeman notched his 11th of the season on a goal initiated by Caledon defenseman Ayden Agius.  Clarence Allain earned the primary assist—his 30th of the season – to give Caledon an early 1-0 lead. 

Coach Taylor discussed the significance of Allain hitting the 30-assist plateau: “Clarence is the second-leading scorer in the league among underagers. He just got better and better as the season has gone along. He’s making better plays and he really took off when we moved him out to the wing with Freeman and Lang.  It’s really a credit to Clarence that he’s turned into a player that the guys want to play with.”

Although the Cougars evened the score at 15:20 of the first period when Owen Davies slipped the puck past Sloan, Caledon defender Ethan Mann tallied his first OJHL goal at 6:41 of the second period to restore the Admirals’ lead. Assists were earned by Deacon King and Nasser Abou-Marie who turned in strong playmaking efforts for the Admirals versus Burlington.

However, Matthieu MacMillan’s goal on a Burlington power play three minutes later tied the game 2-2 heading into the second intermission.

It was all Caledon in the third period as the feisty Admirals sunk the playoff-bound Cougars with three unanswered goals.

Ash Mitchelmore, with help from the playmaking combo of King and Abou-Marie, beat Burlington goaltender Leland Gill at 9:18.

Coach Taylor was pleased that Mitchelmore hit the scoresheet:  “Ash is one of our smartest kids when it comes to hockey IQ. He’s so hard-working and he struggled at the beginning of the season. It was great to see him get that goal. His one-timer inside the post was set up by Deacon. He created some open ice to slide it to Ash after getting a pass from the point by Nasser. It was great work by all three players.”

Less than three minutes later, the Admirals got an insurance goal from Henry Brady who converted Jack Fang’s pass past Gill.  The Cougars pulled Gill for an extra attacker to no avail as Brady fired Caledon’s fifth goal into an empty net to create the margin of victory for the youngest team in the CJHL.

The Cougars will face the third-place Milton Menace (36-15-1-4) in the opening round of the OJHL playoffs this weekend.

The Admirals closed out their OJHL regular season schedule with an 8-0 loss to the red-hot Blues in Collingwood (43-9-3-1) on Friday night.

The reigning Canadian champs—ranked 8th in the nation—won thirteen consecutive games to close the regular season. The rookie-laden Caledon lineup played in front of over 1100 fans for their last regular season game and the Admirals’ bench boss praised the Blues squad: “I’d be very surprised if they don’t win the division in the playoffs and play Trenton in the finals.  They come at you in waves and they work so hard. They have excellent goaltending and they move the puck so well. It’s an extremely talented team and it’s hard to find weaknesses in their lineup.  Leamington, Milton, and Collingwood will all be very difficult to beat. Milton and Collingwood are capable of playing a heavy game that works so well in the playoffs and Leamington’s lineup is filled with talented players.”

Coach Taylor, in partnership with GM Ken Jeysman, will be on the lookout for talented players to augment the strong, young core of the Admirals during the offseason. 

The veteran OJHL coach acknowledged, “We have exit interviews today, we’re going to take a break for a couple of weeks during which we’ll be doing scouting and recruiting. Our Development Camp will be at the end of April, we’ll be doing weekly skates in May and right up to Training Camp in August.” 

Readers Comments (0)