Photo Credit: Ray MacAloney / OJHL Images

Pickering Panthers

Although the Blades and Panthers had played multiple times already, it was the first time they were doing so in Pickering. The team dawned the blue jerseys for 60 minutes in a game that marked the return of defenceman Josh Vagenas. #74 was solid as usual between the pipes, turning away 25 of 27 shots including a huge stop on a Panthers 2-on-1 opportunity. Pickering, a very strong team, would take this meeting by a final score of 3-1 despite being outshot 41-28 by Oakville. 

The Blades would tally their lone goal in the last minutes of regulation as the Panthers were up 2-0. Good things will happen if you get the puck to the net enough and that's exactly what happened. Once the puck was in front of the net, a huge amount of traffic formed pushing the goalie deep into his crease as three Blades players were whacking away at the puck. Fortunately, after hacking at the puck enough, Russell managed to tap one through the legs of the goalie, a goal that would bring Oakville back into the game. 

Despite these great efforts, after the goalie was pulled, Pickering would score an empty net goal as the insurance marker and push the game out of reach. It was definitely not the game the team was hoping for but certainly could have been worse as they did manage to pile 41 shots on net. There was a great effort from the entire line-up. It is only the start of the 3-in-3, however, and the team has plenty of time to pick up points. Full boxscore here. 

Their next opportunity to do so is the next evening back in Oakville when the Aurora Tigers would be visiting.

Aurora Tigers

There are few OJHL teams, if any, which consistently provide as entertaining of matchups against the Blades as the Tigers do. These teams have had multiple games go to overtime and the matches are always physical and punishing. The last time these two teams met, there were over 20 games of suspensions handed out between both teams! With the season series sitting at 2-2, this one was bound to be the best one yet, and it did not disappoint. 

The 1st was a disaster to say the least. Too many chances were given up and it resulted in 3 goals for Aurora. I think it’s safe to say that there aren’t many worse ways to start a game, especially against a team you know you have beaten before. It was very deflating for the team and the crowd at Sixteen Mile to see this happen.

Oakville came into the 2nd swinging in an attempt to deter Aurora from repeating what they had done in the opening 20 minutes of play. Having the ability to dictate pace as a team is extremely important for any hockey, or sports team, if you want to score and win games. They were rewarded for this early with an odd-man rush that featured Aidan Russell as the puck carrier. It initially looked like he was going to pass but his lane was cut off and he decided he was going to shoot. He took a few strides to get in closer to the net and loaded up the dangerous curl and drag wrister he has. Rusty often buries his chances in tight and it was no exception on this goal. Assists go to Aidan Taylor and Jake Alcaraz on the 3-1 goal.

A newfound sense of hope could be found buzzing around the team and its fans as the Blades were on the board and the home crowd was getting into it. Just 4 minutes later, Costante spotted an opening in the defensive coverage between the circles and rushed in. He got a nice pass, right in the wheelhouse, from Rusty and beat the goalie over the shoulder on the one-timer! Suddenly, it was a one goal hockey game. AT also picked up a secondary assist on that goal. 

Now all you need is one goal and it’s a tie game. Lachlan Wells was thinking exactly that when he redirected a slot pass from McKenna to tie it at three a side. All of a sudden, this game was back to even and there was still over a period left to play! 

Aurora scored at 7:37 into the 3rd while shorthanded, another blow to the Blades who had put in all this effort to get to a tie game. The Blades seemed confident, however, that they would in fact tie the game up once again and stuck to their game. It paid off 3 minutes later when Jack Churchill used his size and speed to cut across the net and beat the goalie with a backhand on the glove side. Now back to 4-4, this game was going to be a real close one right down to the finish. There were a few notable times when either squad could have buried the game winner in regulation, but we all knew this game was destined for some good old fashioned overtime. 

The overtime we got was great, and exciting. It all came down to the last minute. Using his speed, Matthew Wang cut to the net and to prevent the puck from going in, the Aurora player purposely dislodged the net! This resulted in a penalty shot for Matthew Wang! He took his time on this one, moving in and speeding up as he got closer to the net. His course even threw the goalie off balance and as the keeper was falling Wang took the opportunity to slide it five hole for the game winner! The 5-4 win against Aurora was huge and the crowd was crazy happy to see the season series fall in Oakville’s favour. Full boxscore here. 

The whole evening was a whirlwind, but it all ended with that beautiful penalty shot. It was satisfying to win against such bitter rivals, but even better since they began dishing out insults to our bench after going up by 2 goals in the 1st. This positive momentum resembles that of the games against Stouffville and Milton a week prior before Oakville ran into 2 of the strongest teams in the league. The team has seen a positive upwards trend recently and it is good to see that despite losing 2 in a row by a combined score of 7-1, the team still had it in them to bounce back. This bodes well for the future of the team and their final push to try and make the playoffs. The Blades have their work cut out for them as their next, and final, opponent of this 3-in-3 is the conference leading Collingwood Blues. 

Collingwood Blues

The last game of the one and only 3-in-3 of the season was in Collingwood and against the Blues. The conference leading Blues are entering this contest on a 4-game winning streak and the Blades having come off of a hard-fought overtime win the night before. Although Collingwood was favoured to win this game, Oakville was not going to roll over and accept defeat. Between the two sides, 86 penalty minutes were handed out, and there were 17 power plays throughout the game!

The Blades got off to a hot start and eventually opened the scoring in Eddie Bush Memorial Arena 6:02 into the game while still on the penalty kill! The combined efforts of Lachlan Wells and Jacob Crisp brought the puck up the ice until Crispy had some space and lasered it straight into the net from distance. Oakville grabbed, and held onto that lead for the majority of the period until the Blues stuck back at 15:57. Nonetheless, a good period for the away side as they had played a strong period against one of the strongest teams in the league.

Even earlier in the period this time, Oakville strikes early again. Wellsy grabs the primary assist again on a goal that saw Matthew Wang fake out the goaltender and slide the puck in on his backhand. The goal also featured an assist from Russell, who now had points in all of the 3-in-3 games registering 2 G, 2A in that span. Now, for the second time this game, the Blades had taken a lead over the powerhouse Collingwood team. 

Their lead was great, and the team was looking strong until a few minutes later when the home squad scored. Then they scored again 12:54 and 14:49. Almost as quickly as the lead had materialized, it was taken away. There would be good news towards the end of the period on the power play though. On a great rush chance, Brown charged in the Blues end with the puck and slid a feed perfectly to an outstretched Akimov who was able to push it in right on the doorstep. It was rather nice to see those two players combine for another goal in that building after working together to score in the InStat Top Prospects game! 

In the 3rd we saw Collingwood score once again, 7:09 in, with Oakville quickly responding with another power play goal! This time it was the setup man, Andrew Brown, who whipped a wrist shot on net from the blue line that would see its way straight into the twine. Overall, the team went 2/9 on the man advantage, which works out to a 22.2% power play efficiency against a team whose penalty kill was firing at just over 86%.

It was looking good as the 3rd period rolled on, but in the end Collingwood would strike two more times. The final score would ring through as 7-4, a great improvement for the Blades considering their last couple of matches against this team. What was very impressive is that Oakville, one of the youngest and least experienced teams in the league, managed to lead Collingwood twice and score 4 goals against a team that averages 2.1 goals against per game. The Blues goalie, who currently owns a .917 SV%, walked away from the evening with a .818 SV%. So no, the Blades didn’t win. What they did do is demonstrate that their hard work is paying off as they are taking steps to become better. It becomes evident with each new game they play that the team has a new sense of hunger when it comes to chasing down pucks and getting to the front of the net. Full boxscore here.

We are in for a busy February with 10 games on the schedule starting with 2 games at home this coming weekend. Friday and Saturday will be 7:00 PM starts vs our North Halton rivals the Georgetown Raiders and the Lindsay Muskies. See you at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex!

By Ty Brooks