Stratford Warriors start the season with three individual milestone moments

The Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors only secured one out of the possible four points in their opening week of the 2025-2026 GOJHL season, but three players provided their first career goals in the process.

Stratford began their 2025-2026 campaign at the Western Fair Sports Complex in London as they played the Nationals on Sept. 17.

It was a tough game for the Warriors, as they couldn't overcome an early deficit and an undisciplined second period, resulting in a 4-1 loss.

London opened the scoring midway through the first period and added two more goals via power play in the second period to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead.

Stratford finally responded late in the middle frame when Jonas Schmidt notched his first goal of the season on the man-advantage, giving the Warriors some momentum going into the third.

But despite the Warriors putting 41 shots on goal, they were unable to climb back from the early deficit.

After the game, Stratford head coach Dave Williams said the team had a challenging game both physically and mentally, but assured them they can play better.

"At the end of the first, even though we outshot them, I think their quality of scoring opportunities far exceeded ours," Williams said.

"I just thought we were very sloppy in general. So hopefully that's just the first game, we’re still a little rusty. I know we can be a much better team and play much better than we did tonight."

Connor Davis made 27 saves between the pipes for the Warriors and was instrumental in keeping the Warriors in contention against an opponent who had played two games into the season.

Davis believes the team can make the necessary adjustments to be on the right path.

"It's just trusting the process. I mean, we're pretty early in the season here. It's our first game," Davis said.

"They got two games under their belt already … I think as we move along here, we're starting to tighten things up."

Williams praised the netminder for his performance, in particular in the first period when the game could've been ended much earlier.

"I mean, that's kind of part of it, is the shot total, but I think we still gave up way too many grade-a scoring opportunities to them," Williams said. 

"We probably could have came out of that first down three or four. I thought Connor played incredibly well in the first and kept that game close for us."

Lucas Minard recorded his first point in the GOJHL on the assist from Schmidt's goal. Minard says he is proud of being part of the historic franchise.

"So coming here like a week ago, the boys have been great. Staff, whole city, town, (they’ve) been amazing, just the legacy of the organization," Minard said.

"It's an honour to put the jersey on every day and go to work for the team."

Warriors fans packed the Allman Arena on Sept. 19 to witness their team battle back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period, but lost heartbreakingly to the Waterloo Siskins 4-3 in overtime.

Waterloo grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second period, but Schmidt scored his second goal of the season to cut the deficit to 2-1. The Siskins responded with a short-handed goal a few minutes later to go up 3-1 heading into the third period.

Stratford rallied midway through the third period by first career GOJHL goals from second-year Dominic Marshall and rookie Max Wildfong to force overtime, but the visitors escaped with the extra point in overtime.

Despite the loss, Williams liked that the team bounced back in the third period to pick up their first point of the season and commended the performance of the line of Marshall, Owen Galbraith and Brady Murphy.

"I didn't think we played real bad in the first two periods. I just thought we were a little slow to get the net front and some of the inside ice that we need to get to score goals," Williams said. 

"You know, it kind of changed a few lines up in the third … And I thought the line of Colin (Slattery), (Owen) Galbraith, Dom Marshall and Brady Murphy were excellent the whole night, and it was great to see those guys get rewarded with a goal."

Marshall described the play that led to his first-ever GOJHL goal and sparked the comeback effort. 

"I saw the little battle on a wall there on the left side, and I kind of floated out behind the play and went to the net with my stick and popped out, plotted it in," Marshall said.

Wildfong, who also scored his first career GOJHL goal that tied the game, felt the warm atmosphere from the team since day one.

"Oh yeah, it's pretty good. It's my first year and I'm the youngest on the team, so the boys have been really welcoming," Wildfong said. "(We) started off the season pretty, pretty slow, but it's been fun. I think we're gonna pick it up here."

It was a shaky start to the season for Davis, as he allowed three goals on seven shots through two periods. However, the veteran netminder had a strong bounce back by stopping all eight Waterloo shots in the third period.

Williams defended his decision to keep Davis in the third period and overtime, and used this as a learning opportunity for the team.

"Well, I think the game was still within reach, or still two goals down there," Williams said.

"So again, it's early in the season and sometimes you got to go through a little adversity at different times, and sometimes it happens at different points this season, and maybe we're hitting a little bit of adversity early on here with the first two games. So let me say I thought the way the guys battled back was definitely moving."

The Warriors travel to Sarnia for a game against the Legionnaires on Sept. 25 and then return home to play the Komoka Kings on Sept. 26.