Mar 17, 2025 | Ontario Minor Hockey Association | 103 views
RECAP: Hurricanes, Waxers win #RedHats at OMHA Championships
U16 and U18 AAA winners crowned
U16 AAA
The Halton Hurricanes secured their first #RedHats in the U16 AAA group in over two decades, defeating the York-Simcoe Express 6-4 in the final at OMHA Championships presented by Egg Farmers of Ontario.
The back and forth contest saw team exchanging leads throughout, led by two goals from forward Alex Taylor.
“There’s not one individual, there’s a group of kids that had one goal and this is the ultimate goal… it’s pretty surreal now to put the Red Hat on,” said head coach Jake Wood.
“I trust my team and I know they’re going to get it done, just have that mentality. Just do it for them, they’ll score if I stop the puck,” added goalie Cole Vreugdenhil.
Brock Chitaroni of the Barrie Jr. Colts led all scorers in the round robin with seven points in three games followed by Gavin Whiston (Ajax-Pickering), Aleksander Sementsov and Taylor (Halton) each had six points.
Captain Jacob Scarpelli added about the team’s mindset: “Just working our butt off consistently, making hard plays and getting pucks in deep. Putting the puck in the net and coming in as a group. That’s one thing we’ve had as a mindset all year, just coming together as a group.”
Earlier in the day the Hurricanes defeated the Ajax-Pickering Raiders in the semifinals while the Express beat the Barrie Jr. Colts earlier.
U18 AAA
The Markham Waxers and North Shore Whitecaps needed a shootout to determine who would win #RedHats at the OMHA U18 AAA Championships presented by Egg Farmers Ontario, with the Waxers earning the gold medal after three overtime periods and a 4-3 final.
Justin Anselmo scored the shootout winner and Lucas Carpino backstopped the Waxers to victory.
This marks back-to-back #RedHats for the U18 AAA Waxers, led by captain Kyle Butt.
“We just did what we did best, did what we did last year. Followed the coaches’ gameplan and stuck to it the whole way,” said Butt.
“I didn’t really overthink much. Just focused on each save, making the next save,” said Carpino of the overtime periods and shootout.
The Waxers jumped out to a 2-0 lead followed by three unanswered goals by the Whitecaps. Maxim Skinner tied the game 3-3 with under two minutes left to send it to extra time.
“They never quit. They knew they could win. It just happened in the shootout, we do that in practice a lot and the guys came through,” said head coach Dan Daoust.
Both the Waxers and Whitecaps finished with 2-1 records in round robin play.
Ulysses Lombardi (Markham) scored seven points in three round robin games to lead all scorers while Hudson Armstrong (North Shore) recorded six points.
In the semis the Whitecaps beat Ajax-Pickering and the Waxers defeated Guelph.
This was the first of four weekends of OMHA Championships presented by Egg Farmers of Ontario. The next three weeks will see 41 more Champions crowned at events in Newmarket, Oakville, Whitby, Kingston and Halton across the U10 to U21 age groups and AAA to Tier 3 divisions.