Almaguin Spartans rookie defenceman Ildan Gazimov is already turning heads around the league.
Considered to be one of the top prospects in the GMHL this season, Ildan Gazimov is living up to the hype with the rebuilding Almaguin Spartans.
The 2001 Defenceman from Russia has 10 points in his first 7 Junior games playing significant minutes on the Spartans blueline.
Despite coming off a championship, the Spartans are a surprising 6-1-0 through the first month of the year.
The Almaguin Spartans wasted no time getting back to their winning ways. In the first game of the new season, Almaguin took down the expansion Ottawa Sharpshooters on home ice by a score of 6:3. There were a lot of new faces in the Spartans lineup, with most of last year’s championship winning roster graduating to College and Pro hockey.
Second year Spartan Ralfs Circenis lead the way offensively posting four points and was named the game’s first star. Another veteran, Zach Thorsen posted three points to be second star and newcomer defenceman Adam Cech had two points of his own for third star honours.
Young goaltender Martin Petiul made 22 saves to record his first ever North American win.
Next up is the West Nipissing Lynx at home on September 15th.
The Almaguin Spartans are hosting their main camp on August 26th, 2018.
There are openings at all positions and the Spartans look forward to seeing the local talent around our great area.
Please email GM David Forde for more details (almaguinspartans@gmail.com)
The Almaguin Spartans will open their schedule on September 8th against the expansion Ottawa Sharpshooters.
The Spartans will play a full 42 game regular season, with 21 home and 21 away.
Full schedule is available here:
The Almaguin Spartans are thrilled to announce that last night they acquired standout veteran defensemen Adam Cech (97) and a 12th Round Draft Pick from the London Lakers for a 10th Round Draft Pick and a Player Development Fee. Cech has spent the past three seasons in the WSHL with El Paso, Ontario and Oklahoma City. During that time, he registered 64 points in 139 games. Prior to that Cech played in the MHL B (Russia’s 2nd Highest Junior League) for Platina.
Spartans General Manager David Forde had this to say about the addition of Cech “We made an aggressive move yesterday to acquire Cech. It’s not very often that defensemen like Cech become available, so we felt we really need to jump at the opportunity to acquire him. I knew going into this off season, we had some big holes to fill on our back end with Austin and Morton, advancing to pro and college hockey and that I needed to find two defensemen that could replace those big minutes on the back end and provide stability to our entire team. I feel very confident that Cech is a player that can fill one of those two holes. He’s a guy that can play 25-30 minutes a night vs the other teams top lines. Cech is a good skater, makes a great first, is good defensively and has great size and toughness at 6’3, 220 pounds. He has proven he can also produce offense over the past three seasons in the WSHL. I think with the opportunity he is going to get on our club and the high level of coaching he will receive from Myles and Gary, that can produce 35-45 points this season. We are also expecting Cech to bring leadership and experience to our club on and off the ice. He has played four years of high level junior and knows what it takes to be a top player and top team.”
Welcome to the Spartans Adam Cech!!!
The Almaguin Spartans are thrilled to announce the addition of 1999 born Swedish Defensemen David Nola from Vallentuna BK J20 Elite. Last season David registered 6 assists in 26 games, which was his first full season at the J20 Elite Level.
Spartans General Manager David Forde had this to say about this addition to the Spartans back end “Nola is a smooth skating dman, with a great first pass. He see’s the ice well and is always focused on the defensive end first. Nola possess great size at 6’2 and 190 pounds and isn’t afraid to use his big frame. We think Nola will be able to contribute big minutes on the back end in a shut down role, but we also feel he has offensive upside which he can develop and utilize under the coaching of Gary and Myles.
The hardest thing to recruit in this league is strong defensemen, but I think we have done a great job so far this off season bringing in strong mobile dmen that can play within our system and I think our dcore will be the back bone of our team this year”.
Welcome to the Spartans David Nola
The Spartans are happy to announce the addition of veteran goaltender Freddy Peters from Rochester, New York. Freddy has been the starter of the Roc City Royals in the NA3HL for the past two years.
Spartans General Manager David Forde had this to say about the addition of Peters “I got the opportunity to meet Freddy during Game #5 of the Russell Cup Finals as he wanted to meet the staff members in our organization and see the level of play in the GMHL. Freddy was very impressed with the level of play in the finals and the way the Spartans played in that game. After meeting with Freddy it was very clear to me that he was the type of player that would fit in great with our program on and off the ice.
Freddy is a very big goalie goaltender at 6’3, that likes to challenge shooters and competes hard every day. He has been the starter for the Roc City Royals the past two years and is looking to further develop his game with the top goalie coach in the GMHL Andre Laperriere. Unfortunately Roc City has been a weaker team in the NA3HL the past two seasons, but despite that Freddy played hard every night and kept his team in a lot of games that they were outplayed in. Freddy will be a veteran influence for our club on and off the ice”.
Welcome Freddy Peters
The Spartans participated in the 13th Annual GMHL Entry Draft today in Gilford, Ontario today. The Spartans made a total of 13 selections, including 3 in the first round. Here are your 2018 Spartans draft picks.
1st Round William Simpson 1997 D from the Alexandria Glens CCHL2
1st Round (2nd pick) Noah Bennett 1997 D from the Cochrane Crunch NOJHL
1st Round (3rd pick) Yahor Tsitavets 2001 F from Belarus
5th Round Tyler Gervais-Rolfe 1997 F from Huntsville Otters PCJHL
6th Round Gabriel Rheault 1997 F from the Rayside Balfour Canadiens NOJHL
7th Round Arturs Pontags 2001 F from Daugavpils Latvia2
8th Round Konstanin Gribulya 2001 D from Dragon/Klin Russia
9th Round Georgi Tsukanov 2001 D from the Moscow Penguins
10th Round Joshua Hodgkinson 2001 D Belfast Giants Scotland U20 and Team Great Britain WJC-18 D2A
11th Round Wylie Nunn 2000 F from Gaylord High USHS-MI
12th Round Trevor Rohrig 1999 F from Iserlohner EC U19 DNL
12th Round (2nd pick) Jazeps Lukjankis 2001 G from Latvia
The Almaguin Spartans put forth an incredible team effort last night as they knocked off the heavily favoured South Division Champion St. George Ravens 7-3 in Game #6 to win the 2018 Russell Cup Championship series 4-2. The Spartans looked willing to do anything to win right from the drop of the puck last night and were not going to denied a championship victory on home ice in from of 700 fans at the South River Machar Arena. The Spartans out worked the Ravens from the drop of the puck and fought through anything the the Ravens threw at them. The Spartans dominated the first period and carried a 3-0 lead into the second period. Despite being short handed a total of 12 minutes in the second period, the Spartans managed to score two short handed goals and took a 6-2 lead into the third period. The Ravens mounted a charge in the third, but it was too little to late as Spartans goaltender Erik Spath shut the door and any opportunity of a Ravens come back. Final Score was 7-3 Spartans!!!
Three Star of the Game
1st Star Mathew Lacrosse 4G, 1A
2nd Star Erik Spath 48 Saves
3rd Star Alexandre Gauthier 1G, 2A
What an amazing night and effort from these 22 young men. Full Spartans Championship Report and more photo’s coming tomorrow!!!
The Almaguin Spartans headed into Game #4 last night in Bradford with an opportunity to advance to the Russell Cup Finals and sweep the Rattlers. The Spartans came out of the gate strong, but it would be the Rattlers striking first at the 8minute mark. Less than 3 minutes later though the Spartans would even the score as Gauthier snapped one home from Hannaford and Austin. The clubs would trade chances for the next 30 minutes, but it wouldn’t be until the final two minutes of the second when the Rattlers scored to go up 2-1.
It appeared the Rattlers were heading into the intermission with a 2-1 lead, but with only 1 second left in the second, Labrosse scored on a short-handed breakaway from Bergman to even the score and give the Spartans a huge momentum boost heading into the third. The teams traded chances throughout the third period, but neither team could capitalize until with only 3:32 left when Captain Bryan Austin ripped a one timer top shelve from Whitehead and Gauthier. The Spartans received a penalty with only two minutes left, but everyone battle hard and killed off the 6 on 4. Final score 3-2 Spartans.
Three Stars of the Game
1st Star Erik Spath 50 Saves
2nd Star Alexandre Gauthier 1G, 1A
3rd Star Bryan Austin 1G, 1A
Last night’s win capped off an incredible run in the North Division Playoffs for the Spartans as they swept all three series (2-0 South Muskoka, 3-0 Temiscaming and 4-0 Bradford) an only gave up 17 goals in this 9 Game playoff winning streak. The Spartans will now prepare for the winner of the Niagara Whalers/St George Ravens series. The Whalers currently lead that series 2-1. As soon as that series is complete the GMHL will release a Russell Cup Finals Schedule. This series will be a best 4 out of 7.
