Best-of-seven series begins in Leamington tonight
BY RON VALENTINE
The Ontario Junior Hockey League’s West Conference final begins tonight with the regular season champion LEAMINGTON FLYERS hosting the third-place finishers, the MILTON MENACE. The teams split their four regular-season games, with the home team winning every game.
The Flyers swept in Leamington, winning 5-2 on Oct. 10, with all the goals coming in the first two periods and 1-0 in double overtime on Feb. 24 on a Brody Cook marker.
The Menace prevailed both nights in Milton, 4-2 on Nov. 22, with Gavin Sheehean netting the winner, and 3-1 on Jan. 24 with Luke Johnston scoring twice.
Both clubs have powered their way to the final, with Leamington sweeping both the Niagara Falls Canucks and the Buffalo Junior Sabres ,while Milton got past the Burlington Cougars in four straight and the Collingwood Blues in five games. The Flyers outscored their opposition 33-14 while Milton scored 43 goals and allowed 19.
Leading point scores for the Menace are Madden MacDougall with 19 points, followed by Johnston on 18 along with blueliner and team captain Graeme MacAuley. Justin Dezoete has 15, Ivan Fabjan 13 and defenceman Marcus Hicks eight. In goals scored MacDougall leads with 11. Johnston has eight as does Fabjan, with five of his being game-winners. Johnston and MacDougall have both committed to Halifax’s Dalhousie University in U SPORTS for this fall.
Leading the way for Leamington is OJHL regular season scoring champion Colton Smith with seven goals and 13 points. Michael Denney has five goals and 13 points while Brayden Degelas has nine points including seven goals. Cook has eight points and Ethan Walker and Gavin Grundner have six apiece. Smith is committed to Clarkson and Cook to another NCAA Division 1 school, UMass Amherst.
Both clubs have used but a single netminder in the postseason to date. The Flyers’ Marcus Vandenburg sports a 1.75 goals against average and a .935 save percentage and the Menace’s Carter Bickle at 2.01 GAA and a save percentage of .939 to go with two shutouts.
How about special teams?
In the powerplay department, the Menace are at 36.1 percent with the Flyers at 18.5 percent. In penalty killing the Flyers have a 96.3 percent success rate. Milton’s is 81.1 percent.
Cade Bell, committed to NCAA Division 1 Brown University for 2026, has the only shorthanded marker of the playoffs for the Flyers, while the Menace’s MacDougall has found the net twice.
On the powerplay, the Flyers have scored five times, led by Smith’s two. The Menace have been especially dangerous with the extra man, scoring 13 times. Johnston and MacAuley lead the way with three each. To date in the playoffs, the Menace have 166 penalty minutes with the Flyers spending 66 minutes in the box.
Eight players on the Leamington roster are in their last season of junior hockey eligibility: goalie Vandenburg, blueliners Marquise Brown, Owen MacDonald and Nick Mahy along with forwards Owen Fergusson (committed to RMC this Fall), Gavin Grundner, Dalton Kane and Smith.
Graduating players (born in 2004) with Milton include goalie Bickle, blueliners Hicks and Owen Kindree (who will also be heading to Dalhousie), Alessandro Petreccia (out of the lineup during the playoffs so far with an injury); Cole Semeniuk who is committed to NCAA Division III Middlebury; Dezoete, Johnston, MacDougall and Alexander Siletsky.
The youngest player on the Milton team is Ryder Cali who does not turn 17 until September. Cali has commitments to NCAA Division I Harvard and the North Bay Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League.
Leamington has two 17-year old regulars in Cook and Austin Darocy.
Follow Ron Valentine on X @ronandlynda
