A rebuilding year requires certain key ingredients and the Amherstburg Admirals have found one of those in Drew Booker.
The locals opened their Provincial Junior Hockey League (Jr. C) season with a couple of losses this past weekend but despite that, it was a sort of homecoming for Booker.
“It’s nice to be home. I grew up very close to here watching Amherstburg as a kid. It’s nice to come full circle. They signed me as a 16-year-old but because of Covid I didn’t get to play,” said Booker following Saturday night’s 2-0 home opener loss to the Dresden Kings.
Held off the scoresheet against the Kings, Booker notched a goal and set up another the night before in a 6-3 loss to the defending provincial champions Lakeshore Canadiens.
For the past three years he has suited up for the LaSalle Vipers Jr. B team and considers his opportunity with the Admirals a chance to maybe show some of the rookies a thing or two.
“I think they (Admirals) believe in me. The team is all working together and things are going to start to connect. It’s a good opportunity to work from the ground up.”
In 137 regular season games with the Vipers, Booker had 64 points including 29 goals. He is one of seven Amherstburg born players on the 2024-25 roster and in the home opener centred the top line between returnees Brett Jones and Allan Djordjevic.
In their season opener in Lakeshore last Friday, the visiting Admirals got behind early but managed to pull to within a goal. For Amherstburg, Jones, Dallas Kelly and Booker scored.
“We got down 3-0 and instead of giving up, we battled back and got two quick goals,” said Admirals’ head coach Beau Hunter.
The next night at the Libro Centre it was the Kings who scored a pair of quick ones. After a scoreless opening frame, the Kings found the back of the net on a Daniel Norton powerplay goal and less than two minutes later Blake Stevens clinched it for the visitors.
Hunter acknowledged that the Admirals were a little undisciplined and commented, “any penalty in the offensive zone is unacceptable.”
He also said his forwards had a tough time clearing the puck in the offensive zone and the defense were pinching too much from the blueline. Hunter did not seem disappointed after the two weekend losses to start the new year.
“It’s tough to get into a groove when you’ve got guys who haven’t played together. I told them to keep their heads up.”
Rookie goalie Russell Vaughan got back-to-back starts for the Admirals to start the year, making 27 saves against Dresden. Kings netminder Ty Golden got the shutout and was name the first star of the game.
Amherstburg now has three games on the road in four nights as they travel to Walpole Island to face the Wild on Thursday, Mooretown Saturday to face the Flags and visit Blenheim and the Blades on Sunday.
SLAPSHOTS: Sponsors Jeremy and Christine Brush dropped the ceremonial puck Saturday to kick off the season… Leadership group for the Admirals this year are captain Darby Drouillard, assistants Allan Djordjevic, Jack Bulmer and Jadyn Brown… Kelly was a late signee after returning from the Jr. B Strathroy Rockets… Next home game is Saturday, Sept. 28 against the Wild.
Admirals open PJHL season with pair of weekend games
By Fred Groves
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