Photo Credit: Spencer Smye/ OJHL Images

October 14th was Pink in the Rink night down at Sixteen Mile. The evening was filled with great activities to support the Wellspring Birmingham Gilgan House in Oakville, and was certainly successful. There was a bake sale, game-worn jerseys for silent auction, raffle prizes, and even a performance from the EDGE Novice Synchronized skating team during the intermission. Luke Tokarz, a Fergus native, also made his Blades debut on defence where he managed to play a steady low-risk type of game. Local talent Josh Kudo also made his Blades debut for the season after playing with the team last year. He is an affiliated player this season as he is signed with Amherstview Jets of the PJCHL while he attends Queen's University in Kingston. That, as well as the re-insertion of Thacker into the lineup provided a new look to Oakville’s game day lineup. All that combined with the wonderfully designed pink jerseys made for a great atmosphere at the rink. Prior to the start of the game, over $14,000 had already been raised online.

The only thing keeping the night from being perfect for Oakville was the fact that they ended up dropping the game to Burlington in a 4-3 regulation loss. Despite pulling back into the game late in the 3rd they never managed to get that last goal to complete the comeback and exit the night with an extra win under their belts. As is typical with games that see the Blades play stay close in high scoring games, their netminder rejected shot after shot throughout all 3 frames of the game. McCarthy (who clearly benefited from his new pads) was on top of it throughout the entire 60 minutes. All pucks that got by him were shots that came from in tight and with minimal opportunity for him to react and reposition to make the save. He ended the game having turned away 37 of 41 shots on his net. 

The opening portion of this game did not go the way the Blades would have liked it to have gone. After being heavily outshout and out chanced, it was up to the goalie to stand tall and keep the Burlington score to as little as possible considering the circumstances. So that’s what he did, limiting the visiting Cougars to only 2 goals throughout the period. This period was played very quickly, with minimal stoppages to penalties, offsides and icings, it made for an interesting period where it was all go, all the time, making Gavin McCarthy’s performance more impressive. 

Crisp welcomed us into the 2nd period right away scoring on a well-timed deflection goal off a point shot from Thacker. This put the home squad within 1 and some momentum to work with. Despite some decent chances for Oakville, the next team to strike was in fact Burlington as they tucked one away right on the doorstep. Things started to heat up from this point on and things got more and more chippy after each whistle. It all broke loose as the period began in the final minutes and we saw a fight from Kudo as he tried to make his presence felt on this team. The brawl combined with several roughing penalties from either side created a slew of penalties that we were to close off the period with. On top of that, seconds away from the period ending a very questionable goaltender interference call was made against Aidan Taylor. Taylor may have had a little help from the other team’s goalie in managing to get an extra 2 minutes heading into the third… 

Burlington came in and scored with only 3:25 gone in the third, putting the game at a score of 4-1 that would seemingly be too difficult for Oakville to come back from. It continued to be this way for a large portion of the period until the Blades went on the powerplay. After gaining the zone, the Blades began to cycle the puck and it ended up back at the blueline on the tape of Andrew Brown’s stick. A hard shot from the point led to a juicy rebound that Shawn Valere had to take a couple whacks at but eventually was able to slam it home into the net for the 4-2 goal. With 8 minutes to go, the hopes for the Blades to come back into this game were still very much alive. After a couple penalty kills, the score sat at 4-2 still and the coaches decided it’s time for the goalie to come off and to get the extra attacker out there.

Time dwindled down and it seemed like the game was going to have its final score after Valere’s goal but that was not to be the case. Brown gets the zone entry with 35 seconds left and rips one cleanly past the goalie from what was practically the blue line. It was a short lived celebration, however, as the Oakville Blades did end up dropping the game 4-3, having been unable to fully complete the comeback from the 3 goal deficit. Full boxscore here: http://oakvilleblades_ojhl.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3602539

Their next chance to capture a win is this upcoming Thursday, the 20th for an away game to be played up in Stouffville as they take on the 6-5 Spirit. Time to get a win on the road! This game will be followed by another at home on Friday where we will find out the total raised for Wellspring, and one on the road in Georgetown on Saturday.

By Ty Brooks