Flyers ride hot start to victory

Sep 7, 20231 min read

Updated: Sep 10, 2023

The Leamington Flyers unveiled their championship banners prior to turning the page on their Junior B history.

The Flyers celebrated their Western Conference and Sutherland Cup championships prior to Thursday's OJHL game against the Buffalo Jr. Sabres. "I'll be forever indebted to those hockey players for the effort they put in." said head coach Dale Mitchell who watched players from last year's team gather to watch the unveiling together.

"It's amazing." said former captain Gabe Piccolo. "To see some of the boys I played with last year and just to be here again and watch them play it's a good experience."

Trevor Larue enjoyed his return to the Nature Fresh Farms Recreation Centre. "It's surreal. It's a cool night. Opening night for OJHL hockey in Leamington. Bright future ahead."

The Flyers got their future started quickly as William VanSumeren scored 52 seconds into the game. Alex Cunningham scored on the powerplay at 2:33 and Brady Hamlin wired a wrist shot giving Leamington a 3-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old.

Captain Cayden Faust had four assists to lead the Flyers offence while goaltender Sebastian Gatto turned aside 27 of 30 shots to lead Leamington to a 7-3 win in their OJHL debut. "It's still a long season at the end of the day. Everything we've done the last couple of weeks kinda tied in together for tonight's game." Mitchell said.

The Flyers head to Markham Friday night before closing out the weekend in Caledon.

Here are some highlights from Leamington's OJHL opener.