Stouffville Spirit

After almost 2 weeks of not seeing our Blades play any OJHL hockey, fans were welcomed back to the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex as the team prepared to face the Stouffville Spirit on the Remembrance Day game, on November 11th, a special day for many. Even before the players skated onto the ice in their special Remembrance Day jerseys, the ceremonies began at the arena. A video tribute and the honouring of a current and retired member of the forces preceded the player’s entry to the ice and was a touching ceremony for the almost 300 people in attendance. The crowd of many also served as a welcome to new forward Dawson Lukey who played his first two games in the OJHL this weekend. As the cherry on top, the Blades even managed to grab the 2 points against Stouffville in the special game.

Both teams played good, clean hockey to start this game. The period was limited to only one penalty and opportunities were similar for both sides. It took 7:23 before the first goal was scored and it went in Oakville’s net. It was a play that shouldn’t have happened and left the goalie exposed, and the Spirit made no mistake cashing in. Both teams went back to even hockey and it would take us a whole other 10 minutes before we would see another puck fly past the goal line. The newly assembled line featuring Wang, Wells and Akimov was on the ice and would start their weekend dominance tonight. Off of the rush Wells slid a pass to Wang who found the dangerous ice in front of the net and picked his corner with ease. This would wrap up scoring for the period but definitely not the game. 

Then one of the worst possible things happened, the Spirit scored only 15 seconds into the 2nd period. The Blades did however continue their trend of scoring around 10 minutes after the Spirit did as this time it was Shawn Valere who ripped it home to tie us back up in a period that saw the Blades get plenty of shots on net. Stouffville’s goalie stayed strong however and didn’t give up anything else that period. Meanwhile, at Oakville’s end of the ice just a few minutes later we saw another error that led to a tap in goal and the Blades were once again trailing in the game. It was now time for the final period and it was looking like it was going to be a tight finish between these two teams.

Fortunately the Blades players had other plans for this game. The home team exploded offensively and scored 3 goals this period. What’s even crazier is Matthew Wang notched a point on each and every single one of those goals! The scoring started halfway through the 3rd when Wang flew in with all kinds of speed and made beating the goalie high blocker look easy for the second time tonight. It was a beautiful shot that the goalie saw the whole way but just couldn’t stop it. It was only five minutes later when we witnessed Wang’s great speed in the offensive end again. Instead of shooting this time, he sent a pass straight to Luke Johnston who had no problems burying it into the back of the net. 4-3 Blades, they were now in the lead for the first time tonight. Wang and his linemates couldn’t even wait another minute before they did it again as all three forwards on that line (Wang, Wells, Akimov) combined for a goal off of an in tight rebound that Akimov managed to slam home to seal the game off. 

In the end the Blades walked away with the win, and the Wang, Wells, Akimov line combined for a total of 8 points split among themselves. Wang notched 2 goals and 2 assists in this game and that would only be the start of his dominance on the scoresheet this weekend. As the Blades saluted the home crowd after the game, it was nice to see them piece together back-to-back wins and they were starting to look like a new and improved team after the break. The Pickering Panthers are no slouch of a team, and they were the next team up. Full boxscore here: http://oakvilleblades_ojhl.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3602541

Pickering Panthers

It was well within 24 hours of when the Blades played against the Stouffville Spirit that they returned to action again at Sixteen Mile, this time against the Pickering Panthers. This game was intense, there was lots of goal scoring, a huge amount of penalty minutes, and it was even featured on CHCH TV where it was broadcasted nationally. The team stepped on the ice in their beautiful looking red jerseys and looked to snatch another two points and add onto their first back-to-back wins by getting a third win in a row in the third jerseys. 

Everyone was feeling good, new win streak, new jerseys and the game on national tv, that ended very quickly. Just a minute in, the Blades are already down a goal. Plenty of chances are coming from too close to McCarthy throughout the rest of the period too. Then the penalties start rolling in too. A lot of this period was spent with the special teams units out on the ice. Despite spending some time shorthanded, the Blades managed to pull off the ultimate achievement when killing off a penalty, scoring a goal. After chasing the opposing team down and grinding it out in the corner, Wang collected the puck and snapped it immediately to Lachlan Wells who made no mistake and stuffed it in the net. A very nice play from those two. Later on in the period on yet another penalty kill, the away team would put one home and we went back into the dressing room for the intermission down 2-1.

In the second, the Blades were on a mission to put one in the net. In terms of purely shots from dangerous areas, this was one of the best periods the Blades have posted this season. Unfortunately, sometimes you run into a hot goaltender, and it seems like that is what happened in this period. Oakville did not manage to get on the scoresheet at all this period while Pickering sneakily punched home 3 goals. The blame can’t be put on Gavin McCarthy however, he was solid and these goals were ridiculously hard to stop as the puck was being snapped around the ice too quickly for him to keep up. The Blades were starting to get frustrated because this game should have been much closer than it was.

If you love the physical game of hockey: scrums after whistles, big hits, fights and lots of penalties, this is the period for you. The Blades even started this period with the extra man and their powerplay cashed in. Marco Costante, affectionately known as Meatball amongst the boys, placed a fantastic wrist shot from the point straight into the twine. Almost as impressively, Wang grabs another point with a primary assist. Not long after, the Blades were off to the penalty kill for cross-checking and gave up a goal on that same penalty kill. The score was now 6-2 for Pickering and the game started looking like it was going to get out of reach. 

From this point on until the last 2 minutes it was all penalties and no goal scoring. This game saw 2 head contact majors, a slash, a hook and 2 violations for inciting an opponent in only the next 12 minutes of this game. It was full blown chaos and scrums were happening after every whistle. This was all nothing compared to the final minute of the game, but before we get to that we need to highlight another great play from Marco Costante. Not even on the powerplay this time, he walked in and placed a great shot just out of reach of the goalie for his second goal of the period. Meatball has been on a roll recently and has scored 3 of his 6 points on the season in the last 3 games alone. Look to the future for him to build on this and potentially become an increasing threat offensively. 

Oakville plays the Panthers 3 more times and it’s definitely a good thing that the next meeting isn’t until the end of January as this last minute of play was incredibly scrappy. A huge brawl between all 5 skaters on the ice for both teams led to all of the following penalties:

•  2 major penalties for fighting (With a game misconduct for each fighter too)

• A slashing penalty

• 6 (3 for each team) misconducts for inciting an opponent  

That brawl in the last minute led to one player not being kicked out of the game. It was crazy and it will definitely be an interesting time when these two teams face off next. 

As for the loss, there are some very positive things you may have missed about this game. Dawson Lukey, playing in only his second ever OJHL game, recorded a primary assist on Costante’s second goal, marking his first point with the Oakville Blades. He has been showing his quick feet and great vision for the whole weekend and it was encouraging to see him on the scoresheet so early in his OJHL career. Perhaps the biggest and most important thing we can take from this loss is the team did very well in the faceoff dot across the board. In the past, the Blades centre ice men have struggled when taking draws. In this game, however, each player on the team that recorded more than 10 faceoffs in the game, also recorded a faceoff percentage above 50%, which is a good sign leading into the future. 

Even with the loss, there are good things that came out of this game too that Blades fans can turn to and use as hope in future games as the team looks to right the ship after a rocky start to the season. The team looks to rebound on Tuesday, November 15th for a 2:00 PM road game in Toronto against the Patriots. Full boxscore here: http://oakvilleblades_ojhl.wttstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=3602546

By Ty Brooks