Brantford 99ers

Having won their last game on December 14th against Aurora, the Blades were ready to get back in the win column after only collecting 1 point in the last 4 games. They did exactly that this past Thursday, January the 12th against the Brantford 99ers. With a final score of 7-2, the team exploded offensively, resulting in 7 players with multi-point games and 13 players recorded at least 1 point. The Blades were so dominant they even completed a sweep of the 3 stars of the night with Costante, Wells and Churchill taking the honours. To round it all off, Sam Edmands played very well in net stopping 22 of 24 giving him his first OJHL win! 

It all started 4:45 into the first period when Caringi won the draw in the offensive end. The puck found its way back to him right after he won the draw and he quickly shot it in. 1-0 Blades. Towards the end of the period we got another goal, this time, it was a first OJHL goal. Matthew Wang picked the puck up in the neutral zone, sidestepped a check from the defending 99ers player and entered the opposing zone. He pressed in to clear up some space for Lachlan Wells. Wang passed it to Wells, who sent it directly to Modry. He winds up, and fires it right past the glove of the Brantford netminder. A goal #12 won’t soon forget.

It took 9 minutes in the second period before the Blades were to strike again, this time it was the first star of the night, Marco Costante. On their 4th power play of the night, some nice passing along the blue line led to a blast from Brown at the point. Gleb Akimov, who usually finds himself comfortably in front of the goalie on the power play, noticed that Costante was sliding down the right side and tapped the rebound perfectly over to him for the first goal of the night for #84. Just 3 minutes later, Jacob Crisp spun around from the high slot and went bardown on the Brantford goalie. Oakville had a commanding 4-0 lead. Despite that dominance, they would give up a goal with only 15 seconds left in the period, but still stood tall at 4-1 through 40.

In the final period, both McKenna and Costante rocketed shots from far out past the 99ers goalie. On top of that, Wells did some good work down low to get to the front of the net and tapped in his own rebound to add his name in the goal column. The Oakville Blades dominated the shot totals with an impressive 56-24 (over 2 times more shots!) than the home team. Overall, a highly successful game that the squad should use as a confidence boost. Now they know that they can generate as much offensively as they did while keeping the shots to 24 for Brantford. Next team up is the North York Rangers for the lone meeting between the Blades and the Rangers this season.

 

North York Rangers

After an unusual Thursday game, the Blades suited up for a Sunday evening matchup. This game was the one and only time the Blades played and visited the Rangers (although the OJHL All-Star Celebration weekend did see some Blades and Rangers players clash). The teams were within a handful of points to each other, making this a competitive matchup right from the very start. Despite the loss, McCarthy posted a .942 SV% and was phenomenal between the pipes. 

Both the building (it was very cold) and the Blades needed to heat up because the beginning of the game was lopsided in favour of the Rangers. Sure enough, 5:10 into the game, the leading scorer for the Rangers gets on the board. Over 20 minutes of play would go by, and even with the uptick in shots from Oakville, the Rangers tallied another. This was no fault of McCarthy’s who had already stopped multiple odd man rushes, breakaways and a penalty shot by the end of the 2nd period. He was simply phenomenal. 

After pulling the goalie in the dying minutes of the 3rd period, a period where the visiting squad had come close to scoring on multiple occasions, they finally did. After around a minute of quality chances, Crisp took a shot from the right circle that the North York goalie couldn’t quite handle. Luke Johnston swooped in and buried the rebound to keep the chance at a win alive and assure that the team wouldn’t walk away with 0 goals on the night. Even after outshooting North York 39-35, it wasn’t meant to be. The alternate jersey wearing Blades couldn’t get the job done after a frustrating offensive night. Up next, a continuation of the always spirited series against the Stouffville Spirit. This one is up north at the Stouffville Arena with a 7:30 PM start this Thursday. We will then be back at home on Friday for Country Night! Show us you best country attire as there will be prizes for the best dressed cowboy and cowgirl. There will also be a raffle for a custom Auston Matthews Leafs Jersey Chair! See you at 7:00 PM!

By Ty Brooks