Freeman and Keeler tally two each in Admirals’ suspenseful 6-3 win over Oakville

December 11, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

The Caledon Admirals got two goals each from Curtis Freeman and Nolan Keeler en-route to a 6-3 victory over the Oakville Blades at the Mayfield Recreation Complex on Thursday night.

Freeman and Keeler have accrued 67 points so far this season and their veteran presence led the resurgent Admirals’ offence versus the Blades.

Jacob Owsicki contributed a three-point night with a goal and two assists and Jack Fang earned three helpers. Ryan Haeney added an empty netter for his first goal of the season.

Fifty-six seconds into Thursday’s contest at The Icebox, the red-clad Blades yielded Nolan Keeler’s 13th goal of the season. The lightning-fast goal by the gold and burgundy-clad home side was assisted by Owsicki and Fang.

Oakville replied less than three minutes later when Matthew Ross beat Calem Yorke at 3:02.

After surrendering the tying goal, Caledon’s lefty goalie made a series of high-quality saves – flashing the leather, kicking out the puck, and showed off his stick save skills to keep the Blades from securing momentum on the road.

Freeman restored the Admirals’ lead when he got loose on the right wing and snapped a shot from just inside the faceoff circle that handcuffed Oakville goaltender Marcus Cruz-D’Annunzio almost 15 minutes into the period.

The Admirals’ leading scorer described the go-ahead goal: “Brentnell did a nice job keeping the puck in and I saw Lang driving the net. He gave me a nice pass and I had room to shoot it.”

Five seconds into the second period, the swift-skating Keeler created a breakaway and fired a laser from 30 feet, but Cruz-D’Annunzio snared the shot – much to the chagrin of Caledon’s second-leading scorer who was looking to light the lamp as quickly as he did in the first period.

Less than two minutes later, Cruz-D’Annunzio was less fortunate. Off the left wing, Nate Brentnell saucered a perfect pass that Freeman finished skillfully from between the circles—lifting the puck in one motion over the diminutive Oakville goaltender.

Freeman described the beauty of a goal that put the Admirals up 3-1: “I saw him carry the puck and he gave me a perfect ‘sauce’—right in my wheelhouse.”

The Admirals held their two-goal lead for more than 10 minutes until Oakville capitalized on a power play at 12:26. After Calem Yorke made four rapid-fire saves in a chaotic goalmouth sequence, he surrendered Tanner Nettleton’s snapshot—set up by Ross – that bulged the twine and pulled the Blades to within one.

An end-to-end rush by Owsicki in the third period created the Admirals’ game-winning goal.

The swift-skating forward—acquired in a trade from the North York Rangers in October—swept into the Oakville zone from the left wing, got Cruz-D’Annunzio moving right to left, and fired a wrist shot through a defender that beat the Blades’ tender cleanly from between the circles.

Owsicki’s unassisted marker put the home side up 4-2 and secured his first three-point night as an Admiral.

However, the Blades continued to generate suspense when penalty killer Tyler Le Conte picked up a loose puck in the Caledon zone and flung a wrist shot that beat Yorke at 4:55 to pull Oakville to within one at 4-3.

Le Conte’s shortie was his first of the season.

Thirty-six seconds later, Keeler quelled the Blades’ comeback with his second of the game. On another picturesque goal to which the fans were treated, the former Georgetown Bulldog took a pass from Fang and rifled a shot off the left wing that beat Cruz-Dannunzio to restore Caledon’s two-goal lead.

Freeman described his teammate’s scoring touch on the marker that put the Admirals ahead 5-3.

“He’s very skilled. When he gets the puck in those scoring situations, he buries it nine out of ten times.”

Fang earned his third assist of the game and 15th of the season on Keeler’s power play marker.

Penalty killer Cam Lang picked up his second assist of the night when he pushed the puck to defender Ryan Haeney who slid it from his own right face-off dot into the empty Blades’ cage with 1:26 left on the clock to provide the three-goal margin of victory.

Yorke stopped 15 of 16 shots in the third period, serving as his team’s best penalty killer, and his 36-save performance was spectacular at times.

Freeman complimented his goaltender’s work: “He was solid. He was seeing the puck well and made some big saves when we needed him to, especially on the penalty kill.”

Thursday’s victory righted the Admirals’ ship that had been listing with three losses in the last four games. More importantly, it avenged an 8-4 loss to the Blades in Oakville on November 22.

Freeman—Caledon’s Assistant Captain—delineated the keys to the much-needed home ice win and contrasted last season when the youngest team in the OJHL struggled until Christmas: “Tonight, we came out strong in the first period. We got into some penalty trouble later in the game, but we got some big goals. Last year, we were a mostly young team. We’ve matured over a year and [GM] Ken [Jeyesman] has made some great moves bringing in players like Brentnell and Keeler. Jim Meredith has made a big difference in goal for us, too. Our coaching staff has us prepared for games and when we execute their systems, we’ve been winning.”

The eighth-place Admirals improved their record to 12-12-1-2—a startling contrast to last season when the Fleet was buried in 12th place in the OJHL West and sat last in the 24-team league with a 4-26-0-0 record on December 6, 2024.