OJHL Kicks Off Season

The Newmarket Hurricanes kicked off the OJHL season with a win on Friday; the league’s season is fresh, just 10 games having been played so far.

The OJHL season is now underway, as teams began play on Friday and ten games have been played since. Let’s take a brief look at the opening weekend and how things fared for the teams.

The season began Friday at 7:30 p.m. as six teams matched up.

Newmarket’s Hurricanes defeated the Pickering Panthers by a score of 3-2. Goaltender Matthew Wintjes had 14 saves in the win, which saw 28 penalties called for a total of 88 penalty minutes.

A trio of nineteen-year-olds scored for Newmarket, as Brandon Francisco, Daniel Leavens and Calvin Higley notched goals in the first win of the season. Derek Sheppard and Andrew McCann added goals for Pickering in the loss.

Meanwhile, the St. Michaels Buzzers would hand a loss to the Toronto Jr. Canadiens, 4-1. Forward CJ Shugart, in his second year with the team, would score twice for St. Michaels. Jake Evans and Stephen Pietrobon would also tally, while 17-year-old Toronto native Nicholas Jarzabek would score his first OJHL goal for Toronto.

Finally that evening, the Georgetown Raiders would defeat the Oakville Blades, 3-2, led by forward Drake Hart, who had two goals in the win.

For Oakville, it was a bit of a family affair, as the 18-year-old Renouf twins combined for a goal and three assists.

The action continued on Saturday with three more games; this time, the tables would turn as Oakville defeated Georgetown 3-2. Orangeville came out on top of Milton in a shootout, while Burlington defeated Hamilton by a demanding score of 5-1. Steven Mueller and Mike Rodgers had two points each.

Lastly, there were four games – including three afternoon stints – on Sunday.

The Toronto Lakeshore Patriots took on St. Michaels in a 2 p.m. matchup first. A goal-filled game would result in a necessary overtime, during which Toronto Lakeshore defenseman Niko Kovachis would score the game-winner and first goal of his OJHL career to secure the 5-4 win.

Next, Pickering would eventually drop a 2:10 match to the Whitby Fury in yet another high-scoring game; the only difference is that this one didn’t need extra time to end 5-4.

All of Pickering’s offense that game was thanks in large part to OJHL veteran forward Matt Galati. The 20-year-old scored all four of the Panthers’ goals and leads the league in goals, while five different players scored for Whitby.

The final two games of the day would both end the same way: 3-0.

First, Kingston dropped its opener to the Stouffville Spirit. Backus, Morgan and Botten tallied for the Spirit, and goaltender GianLuca Palmieri had 29 saves in the win.

Voyageurs goaltender Charlie Finn had an outstanding 37 saves for Kingston, despite the loss.

Finally, in the sole evening game of the day, the Buffalo Jr. Sabres opened their season with a 3-0 win over Toronto.

Max Mikowski and Alex Dagnal, both in their sophomore season with Buffalo, scored in the win. Rookie Pat Egan, a native of Rochester, NY, also scored his first OJHL goal.

Play continues this evening with three games.