Stratford Warriors player Cole Melady watches teammate Drew Welsch's shot hit the back of the net in Stratford's win last weekend over the Brantford Bandits. (Photo by Cory Smith)

Dutchmen visit Listowel, Warriors host Brampton in GOJHL tonight 

The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League schedule is in full swing as the third weekend of the season begins tonight and features two games with local flavour. The Listowel Cyclones will host the Kitchener Dutchmen at Steve Kerr Arena while the Stratford Warriors welcome the Brampton Bombers to the Allman Arena. 

Listowel is the Midwest Division’s only unbeaten team, sporting an early record of 3-0-0-1, while Kitchener has struggled out of the gate, winning once in its first four games. Returning forwards Trent Verbeek, Jonah White and Steven Grant will be relied on to power the Cyclones attack this season sinceHoldyn Lansink, Chayse Herrfort and Brayden Krieger have graduated after leading Listowel to one of the GOJHL’s top offenses last year. Kitchener’s top scorer from last season, Sean Kawalec, returns as captain and will look to build off a 70-point campaign in 2018-19 for the Dutchies. 

In Stratford, the Warriors will look to build off a strong regular season last year in which they finished second behind Listowel, before being upset in the second round by Waterloo. Dave Williams’ squad will feature two 19-year-old goaltenders in returnee Tyler Parr and newcomer Rhett Kimmel, who was acquired from Elmira in the off-season. Stratford sits at 2-1-0-1 while the Bombers have enjoyed a strong start, winning three of their first four games, led by forward Brandan Fisher with four goals. Brampton finished last season in last place in the Midwest before being swept by Listowel in the first round of the playoffs. 

The weekend also features games between Kitchener and the Brantford Bandits in Brantford, the Cambridge Redhawks hosting Stratford, and the Waterloo Siskins visiting Elmira on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon, Waterloo will host Cambridge at 1:30 pm, while Elmira welcomes Brampton and Listowel visits Brantford at night.