Hockey / 3-in-3 Ends with Heads Held High

3-in-3 Ends with Heads Held High

Date:  Source: OJHL Oakville Blades

Photo Credit: Andy Corneau / OJHL Images

Stouffville Spirit

 

The Blades began their first game of three in three nights up north in Stouffville. The Spirit welcomed not only the Oakville Blades that night, but also Stouffville resident and hockey television and radio host Jeff Marek. Marek even made his way onto the ice with his children and got all of them to participate in the ceremonial puck drop with him, a very wholesome moment. The light-hearted attitude for the night was not one that the players shared as once the clock started, everything changed.

 

A combined 29 shots flew at the goaltenders in the first period, probably around the same amount of shots the teams threw at each other. Among the 29 shots, 18 belonged to the home team. As is expected, McCarthy made some impressive saves that could easily have gone in if not for fantastic awareness and reflexes. Even from just the first period alone, you could make an entire highlights package, so we don't have the time or space to explain all of them here. It was an action-packed first period.

 

About midway through this period, the Spirit scored. With a lot of shots and chances it’s bound for someone to score, I’m sure Oakville wishes it was them. After that point, it took 5 minutes for the next goalscorer to present themselves. Matthew Wang started up the boards in the neutral zone in what appeared to be a pretty standard zone entry, but as he skated more and more, you saw him get faster and faster. He beat his defender out wide, but didn’t even move in, just slipped it right between the goalie’s legs for a beautiful goal. It took Wang a whole minute before he realized that he could likely do this again and be successful.It was the same play, except this time he cut across the crease and back handed it over the pad of the outstretched Spirit goalie. On top of that, this was even a shorthanded goal!

 

The second period was no different in terms of how much the teams were managing to generate in terms of offence. Shots were flying on both ends and in this period, past the goalies more often than was expected when the frame opened. The first goal was a Stouffville goal, of which we saw 3 this period and it put our game back at 2-2 after the Blades were starting to get comfortable with leading the score. Just 2 minutes later the Blades would find themselves back into the position they want to be. It was a bit of a lucky bounce, but either way the shot from Crisp finds the twine and it’s now back to 3-2, advantage Blades.

 

Throughout all this goalscoring there was a ridiculous amount of penalties taking place. It felt like it was rare to see 5-on-5 hockey. It all boiled over just after 14:30 gone, shortly after Stouffville would tie up the game at 3-3. A grand total of 26 penalty minutes were dished out to both teams during that one exact stoppage. It was so crazy that we even got to see a fight where Johnston threw down with a Stouffville player. It secured him a game misconduct but it was pretty energizing for the boys on the bench as you could tell they were liking it. Something funny to note too is that Matthew Wang got a game misconduct for what would be recorded as Trash Talking.

 

Stouffville would end up tallying another goal before the period was over and once again in the opening of the third period. This put the game at 5-3 for the Spirit and a much less winnable game like it was when the score was only 3-3. Although McCarthy tried his best, even stopping a penalty shot from the Spirit’s leading scorer, it just wasn’t meant to be for Oakville. They would walk away with the same 5-3 lead as they headed to the dressing rooms. Full boxscore here: http://oakvilleblades_ojhl.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3602394 . As they bus back, the Blades will be preparing for the October 21st matchup against the Haliburton County Huskies for the first time since relocating from Whitby as the Fury, last season. 

 

Haliburton Huskies

 

This game against Haliburton was easily the least successful of the 3. A heavy 5-1 loss combined with limited production, that being only 16 shots and one goal, led to the only game of this 3-in-3 where it was clear the Blades would not have a chance to win this game playing like they were. The goalie, Claudio Ardellini was trying to do his best but is it ever a tough task to play against such a potent lineup like the one the Huskies have.

 

Prior to the start of this game we presented a cheque to Wellspring Gilgan Birmingham House in Oakville in the amount of $17, 082 from proceeds raised online and at our Annual Pink in the Rink game last week. We thank all of the fans, and families for helping us to reach this total. For more information on the Cancer Support Centre visit: https://wellspring.ca/birmingham/

 

Three goals all belonging to the Huskies made their way onto the scoresheet in the first frame. All of them were very in tight plays which left the Blades goalie with little time to react and make the save. Oakville, on the other hand, could only manage to scrape together 5 shots as push back.

 

What made the Huskies so impressive compared to other teams was their ability to move and cycle the puck. It caused many chances at even strength and even on the powerplay despite neither team scoring on the man advantage in this game. The Blades tried to counteract this using their quickness to get forechecking as fast as possible so the options for the Huskies became more limited, but they caught on quickly and began making ways to get around that strategy. 

 

The second period saw our only Oakville Blade goal. You may know him as the man who scored two just the night before, it was none other than Matthew Wang. In fact, this move by Wang was eerily similar to one that he pulled off just the day before. Credit where it’s due, this thing seems to work like a charm, and he scored five-hole again. At this point though, the game is 4-1 and most people in the stands had agreed that it would be very difficult for the Blades to get themselves out of this hole. 

 

Another period of the team getting pounded with shots, Ardellini making some great saves to keep it close and lack of possession time haunted this team. As the clock wound down to 0, Oakville only had 16 shots to show for themselves, not a good look. The Huskies would seal the deal with an empty netter and immediately the home team had to switch their focus away from this loss to the Georgetown Raiders, who they play the following evening, for a 5:30pm start at the Mold-Masters SportsPlex. Full boxscore here: http://oakvilleblades_ojhl.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3602563

 

Georgetown Raiders

 

For the final game of the Blades 3-in-3, they travelled to the Georgetown Mold-Masters SportsPlex in what was easily the most thrilling game of the 3. The teams were flying up and down the ice, the goalies were on fire, and the hits were crushing. Despite a massive offensive output from both teams, totaling a combined 83 shots, the score remained very low and even took not one, but two overtime periods to finish. After a whole 60 minutes at 5-on-5, another 5 minutes of 4-on-4 and then another 4 minutes and 55 seconds of 3-on-3, the game was decided. An extremely hard fought battle between these two teams ends with a 2-1 OT decision with Georgetown coming out on top.

 

It was not the prettiest first 20 for Oakville. With the team sending out only 13 skaters it was an adjustment for everyone and it caused some issues for the Blades in their opening period because it was such a big change. Fortunately for Oakville, when you have a backstopper like McCarthy in net, you get the chance to take rough periods like that to learn. McCarthy made almost 20 saves to keep Georgetown off the board in that period and he would go on to make 49 in the whole game. Reminding us that this is just Gavin McCarthy’s world and we are living in it. 

 

The skaters returned the favour, only 9 shots against this period, to McCarthy and went on a o-zone tear in the second. It was a much more impressive display than the first. Even with the Blades seemingly having the upper hand, the Raiders struck first halfway through the period. The Blades played even better from that point and the Raider’s goal ended up being the only high danger chance they would get that period as the defenceman would be successful in keeping shots and bodies along the boards and away from the front of the net. 

 

After one of these great plays where the Raider’s attack was shut down, Costante shovels the puck out of his zone and skating right up to it is Luke Johnston who uses his great speed to burn right around a defender as he enters the opposing zone. Now just below the hash marks he cuts towards the net and slips a little pass to Costante who hustled all the way down the ice to catch up to the play. Costante made no error and shot it cleanly by the goalie. 

 

There were many good scoring opportunities going either way during the third period but many people were able to see that it was likely that we would need extra time to solve this. 

 

The puck dropped in overtime and we began 4-on-4 action. They played a style of overtime that was extremely strategic. The teams spent their time moving the puck around and waiting for lanes to open rather than creating their own, which is what you would normally see in extra time.. This strategy world quite well for Georgetown but saw less success for Oakville as we again saw #74 have to be solid in net. After 5 minutes of exchanging opportunities, the goalies were not allowing anything to go by them.

 

So we began 3-on-3 overtime, another 5 minute period that would hopefully solve this game once and for all. With even more time and space in 3-on-3, it gets even more interesting. The risk vs. reward factor was ratcheted up and both teams were flying all over the ice. Brown really began playing a stand out role in this OT period and he was generating a lot of zone entries to help his team get set up and getting some decent shots off his stick. Goaltending also was another reason the Blades were looking solid throughout the first half of this second overtime period. With 2:30 to go, the Blades called a timeout and began to strategy a little. After their little break, they returned to the game and it just got even crazier from there. Each play was more and more nail biting. Two minutes of that go by and then something crazy happens, Georgetown pulls their goalie. No delayed penalty, the goalie skates off to the bench and Georgetown rushes into Oakville’s zone. The Blades, who were playing man coverage, don’t pick up the extra attacker coming on the ice as it's an easy cross-ice pass into the one-timer that seals the game off with only 5 seconds to go.

 

A very tight game ends up not going the way the Blades hope. With only 13 skaters, I don’t think the team will be too upset about this one as they managed to play a very strong game for all 70 minutes. It was a big point for the depleted roster and showed a lot of resiliency. Full boxscore here: http://oakvilleblades_ojhl.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3602687

 

 

We have two home games this week, starting on Friday vs. the Collingwood Blues and Saturday vs. the Markham Royals. Saturday is a Halloween game with prizes for best costumes in 3 categories; best child costume, best adult costume, and best pair/group costume! Both games are a 7:00 PM puck drop. See you all there!

 

By Ty Brooks