The Holiday game on Saturday, December 17th was one full of holiday cheer! Santa visited us and our sponsors, Big Bone BBQ were also there with ribs, brisket, pulled pork, buns and corn bread! It was also of great challenge for the Blades as soon as they hit the ice for their matchup. The guests of the evening were the North Halton rival Georgetown Raiders who are currently sitting 3rd in the North/West conference. They regularly provide opposing teams with frustrating nights offensively thanks to their defensive zone prowess and this game was no exception to that.

In an unfortunate loss, Oakville dropped this game against the Raiders by a final score of 4-1. McCarthy was outstanding as usual in a very shot heavy night that saw him face 55 shots on the night. The netminder who played last year with the Timmins Rock of the NOJHL managed to stop 51 shots (he has been on fire recently) to give Oakville a fighting chance. Oakville only scored once in this game on their path to a regulation loss. The goal was, however, on the power play that is looking to regain some traction after having only fired at 10% so far this season.

The lone goal came in the first period after Georgetown had already scored their first marker. With 13:48 passed in the opening frame, some 30 seconds after the Raiders took a slashing penalty, Oakville scored. The goal was a captain-to-captain goal as Akimov passed it to Brown, who put a wrist shot on net that was deflected by Alcaraz who got lost in the Georgetown coverage down low. The Raiders would score again in the 2nd and twice in the third that would leave us with our final score. Full boxscore here. 

We are back on the road for one game on Tuesday the 20th, but we’re not going far. It’ll be easy to come see your Blades play because they’ll be in Burlington, for the 4th of 5 instalments of the Battle of Burloak. 7:30 PM is the game start time so make sure that you get to Central Arena for our rivalry matchup!

By Ty Brooks