Photo Credit: Spencer Smye / OJHL Images

For the 3rd time this year, Oakville made the short trip to the Central Arena in Burlington. This was the 4th meeting between the two teams, and marked the second last game of the year where we would get to see the Battle of Burloak (They'll visit us once more in Oakville later in the year). The Cougars and Blades had previously met 3 times and Burlington had walked away from all of those games with a win. It was much of the same story on the 20th as the Cougars walked away with their 4th straight win against Oakville to a score of 3-0. 

As usual, despite the loss, our #74 was a standout player earning third start honours on the night. On a total of 42 shots McCarthy stopped 39 including an insane desperation save in the 2nd period that shocked everybody in the arena. I'm beginning to feel like a broken record when I say this, but this team would be nowhere near where they are now without their starting netminder. Burlington is the highest scoring offence in the OJHL averaging 4.9 goals per game (Makes offensive outputs from even some of the best teams like the Jr. Canadiens and Haliburton Huskies look small) and Gavin shut them down on multiple occasions and held them to only 3 goals. 

Seeing as Oakville is 9th in the North/West conference and Burlington is 3rd the Blades came into this game as heavy underdogs. They were kept in this game for as long as McCarthy could and he gave them every chance to win. Full boxscore here.

No matter the standings, this isn't how the Blades want to enter the holiday break. They have a shot at redemption and a positive send off into the holidays when they welcome Collingwood to the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex on the 23rd of December. It will be a challenging game, but an extremely special one too. We will be retiring #15 in honour of our former captain and record holder of most games played in a Blades uniform, Jack Ricketts! It will be a momentous occasion for Jack and his family as he will forever be etched into Blades history. Be sure to be there before our 7:00 PM game start to catch the opening ceremonies. 

By Ty Brooks