Admirals eliminated by Essex - coaches not returning

Drew Booker (3) played in his final junior game March 13 in Essex.

Despite a depleted lineup, the Amherstburg Admirals gave it their best this past week but saw themselves eliminated from the Provincial Junior Hockey League’s West Stobbs Division Jr. C playoffs.

Back-to-back similar 6-2 wins by the powerhouse Essex 73’s on Thursday and Friday means the Admirals will have to regroup and look ahead to next season.

“I’m proud of the way the boys played. They didn’t leave anything out there. They fought the whole way out there,” said Amherstburg assistant coach Jake Archer.

Admirals’ General Manager Andrew Sykes confirmed on Friday that Archer along with fellow assistant Justin Toth and head coach Zack Gervais will not be back as they are headed to lead the Sun County Panthers AAA U16 team.

It was a tough three games in four nights which started last Tuesday with a huge 8-0 win at home for the 73’s. That was followed by a 6-2 win Thursday in Amherstburg and the 73’s wrapped things up Friday with another 6-2 victory in Game 5.

Essex jumped out to a commanding 4-0 lead after 20 minutes last Friday night but the gutsy visitors battled back and narrowed the score to 4-2. Rory Sandison scored just 59 seconds into the middle period and Cale Marontate got the Admirals closer with a powerplay marker.

“With our group, there was no quit. They came out and got two quick ones and we had a hockey game for a while,” said Archer, a former standout forward for the Admirals and the 73’s.

Both of Amherstburg’s Friday’s goals were set up by Stefan Djordjevic who led the Admirals in the post-season with 17 points, including 13 goals in 11 games. He echoed Archer’s statement that the Admirals were in the game all night and that the two quick goals in the second gave them a boost.

“There is always a chance because of what happened in Game 2. We know what we have and we played up to our ability the whole series,” said Djordjevic.

After scoring both goals for the Admirals last Thursday at the Libro Centre, it looked like he was off to a great start the next night when, just 12 seconds into the game, he went down and clanged one of the crossbar.

“I wanted to start the game up by one but you can’t get them all,” said Djordjevic, who led the Admirals with 38 points during the regular season.

The last two games saw the Admirals without several regulars including Brett Jones, Cameron Robinet, Freddie McCroy, Evan MacPherson, and Zach Vallancourt. Forward Blake Cowgill and defenceman Arian Glover were called up. Goalie Landon Dimitroff was injured in Thursday’s game and Nicholas Ellsworth backed up Bennett Horrocks in Friday’s game.

“It was definitely tough. As the games went on, we kept losing more and more guys,” said Djordjevic.

It was the final game in an Admirals uniform for his older brother Allan, who departs with 165 total games played over four years. Captain Drew Booker who was the first in line to congratulate the 73’s and last to leave the ice has also graduated along with Jayden Seguin, Vaillancourt and defenceman Luka Milosevic.

Essex will now face the winner of Lakeshore and Blenheim, which were scheduled to play Game 7 Tuesday night.

SLAPSHOTS — No word yet on who the new coaches are… Rory Sandison recently surpassed 100 total games played… Gervais was given a two-game suspension and a $500 fine for behaviour during Thursday’s game… Vaillancourt got three games for butt-ending last Tuesday’s game.

Admirals eliminated by Essex - coaches not returning

By Fred Groves