Cambridge team nearing two Greater Ontario Hockey League records

The Cambridge Redhawks have won all 23 of their games so far this season. As CTV’s Colton Wiens explains, the squad is wins away from breaking league records.

The Cambridge Redhawks are close to setting two new records in the Greater Ontario Hockey League.

The team started the 2025-26 season undefeated.

The 23 game winning streak has the Redhawks on the brink of setting two new league records. The Caledonia Corvairs hold the record for most wins in a row to start a season, with 24 wins to start the 2013-14 season. That same season, the Kitchener Dutchmen set the record for the most consecutive wins with 25.

The Redhawks have a game scheduled for Friday in St. Marys and on Saturday they’ll host Port Colborne. The team is well aware of how close they are to the record, but say it is not their focus.

“It’s going great. We’re on a heater right now, but we’re just taking it one game at a time, you know, focusing on the little details every shift, every minute,” Brandon Balcar, goalie for the Cambridge Redhawks said. “We know what’s coming up. Everybody cares about it obviously. But you know we’re just taking it one game at a time.”

“That’s not our focus,” Mike Rusk, Cambridge Redhawks’ assistant coach, said. “Our idea is make the playoffs and do real well. We’ll take this as a cherry on top. We’re going to try and do our best to accomplish it. If it happens. Awesome. If it doesn’t, you know what? Back to the drawing board. Let’s just keep winning. But I personally want the kids to do it just so that they have something when they get older, they can say, ‘Hey, I was part of something real special.’”

“We’re just looking to keep it going and not get too high and focus on a big playoff run,” Reid Gammage, a forward with the Cambridge Redhawks said.

The Redhawks have the best goal differential in the league and Gammage leads all players in points. But the team says it’s the belief they have in each other that keeps them winning.

“I think that’s the biggest key, the kids are treating each other like family,” Rusk said. “I think we’re playing as a group better than everybody. Gammage has a great drive to him. Our goaltenders are a great group, and we have a decent defence. We have a lot of first year guys that have their sights set on winning and getting better and stuff like that.”

“I let in two goals on three shots, but I knew my team would battle back for me and we ended up winning 5-2,” Balcar said. “100 per cent believe in the boys. 100 percent. I can believe that. I believe if this team wanted to, we could go 50 and 0, and I’m just confident in the boys like that.”

“We’ve been down early many times so far this year and we’ve always battled back. I think it was last week we were down by a goal or two going into the third period against Waterloo - we were able to fight back and grab the two points. So, yeah, we go down, but there’s no worries in the room, we know we’re able to fight back,” Gammage said.

Cambridge also added several new coaches with professional experience this season. Rusk played in different pro leagues before becoming a coach. Nick Spaling spent several seasons in the NHL and is now the team’s assistant coach. Head coach Todd Bertuzzi carries over 15 years of NHL experience. The team says their attention to detail and unrelenting effort to work harder than every other team is paying off.

“You got Todd [Bertuzzi] leading the group and his passion for the game is leaking over to the kids. He really cares. He’s here to teach. He’s wanting to teach. He cares for the kids,” Rusk said. “And then you have local Nick [Spaling]. Nick’s a great coach. He’s awesome. He’s kind of an even keel. He’s got a great mind for the game. I played with [Bertuzzi] growing up in the OHL and I’ve coached myself quite a bit. I run the defence, so it’s a collaboration of three guys. We get along great. We each have something different to offer, but at the same token, we’re going mostly under [Bertuzzi], his guidance, and his idea of what we want.

“Everything is about smaller details. When other coaches would look at bigger picture stuff like this. [Bertuzzi’s] always about smaller details and he doesn’t care if we win 15-nothing or 2-1. there’s always stuff he always picks on. That stuff is what makes us better,” Balcar said.

“We work harder than every single team in this league, and it’s showing in the standings for sure,” Gammage said. “Just the practices, the intensity. We win two games on the weekend, but we’re coming in Monday like we just got blown out.”

If the RedHawks win on Friday, they’ll have a chance to tie the all-time consecutive win record at home on Saturday when they host Port Colborne at the Galt Arena Gardens.