Admirals Unbeaten Streak Continues

Blake Rutckyj of Admirals led his team in wins over Dresden and Essex (Photo courtesy of Integrity Amherstburg Admirals)

By Todd Shearon

The Admirals remain the only unbeaten team in Ontario junior hockey and are the only team to beat Essex (9-2-0-0), doing so twice this season already.

The Integrity Amherstburg Admirals added two more wins to their unbeaten season start defeating the Dresden Kings and Essex 73s this past week in Great Lakes Jr. C. hockey.

The Admirals improve their season record to 8-0-1-1 after defeating the Kings at the Libro Credit Union Centre Oct. 11 by a score of 5-3 followed by a 3-1 victory over the 73s in Essex Oct. 13.

“The biggest thing we made clear to our guys is win or lose it’s how we competed. We treat Essex as a heavyweight champion,” said Admirals Head Coach Paul Bortignon. “We won the first two rounds but no heavyweight champion has ever lost a belt from losing the first two rounds of a fight. The only way we can truly beat them is if we knock them out and that won’t come until playoff time. We fully expect it to go seven games if we were to meet in the playoffs. Include the five regular season games that works out to a 12 round fight. We want to be better in each round and so far so good in that aspect.”

Dylan Muzzatti opened the scoring for the Admirals beating 73s goaltender Trevor Wheaton at 7:34 of the first period with assists from Broden Meloche and Ryan Holzel. Essex’s Tyler Boughner tied the game minutes later at the 10:45 mark.

An Essex bench minor penalty for too many men and a call for a head check set up a two-man advantage allowing Blake Rutckyj to put the Admirals on top at 13:18 of the second period.

“The biggest positive is that we knew when we got him back (this season) he was going to play big in these games,” said Bortignon. “He showed it last year in the playoffs and even this year in the first game against Essex with his physical role and leadership. He’s a calming influence on the bench, especially for our young guys. He’s playing with two rookies on his line and I don’t think there’s any other top tier guy in this league that plays with two rookies all the time. Rutter (Rutckyj) is doing it and doing it with a lot of success.”

Rutckyj, who was named Sunday’s first star later scored the Admiral’s third goal at 16:47 of the third period to close the scoring.

“We’ve got a lot of young players and our veterans are trying to have a big impact on them,” said Rutckyj. “We were able to come together as a team and obviously defeated the best team in Ontario two times in a row. It’s not a fluke. We’ve proven to ourselves that we’re definitely a top calibre team.”

Bortingnon gave the starting call to goaltender Daniel Tonietto who stopped 36 Essex shots toward earning the eighth win for Integrity Amherstburg.

“My plan for the first 20 games was to give them equal opportunity against the best teams to prove that they can be a number one goalie. And right now, both of our goalie’s best games have come against Essex,” said Bortignon. “It’s a positive for us. Both of our goalies are working hard and pushing each other to be the starter or get the first start come playoff time.”

Integrity Amherstburg put together 35 shots and dominated against the Essex power play allowing no goals in five opportunities.

The Admirals head to Dresden on Oct. 16 to face the Kings at 7:30 p.m. and return home Oct. 18 to play host to the Lakeshore Canadiens at 7 p.m.