Markham Royals

The Blades are in a race for the 8th playoff spot in the North/West conference. One of the teams hovering around that last playoff spot in the conference is the Markham Royals.  Hence, when the Blades arrived at the Markham Centennial Centre, on Friday, February 17th, they knew that a win in this contest would be a huge boost for the squad. This game in its entirety was very evenly matched between the two teams as the shots would even finish 38-38. With the game also having only 9 combined penalty minutes, we were able to see the best of what each team had to offer at even strength.

We would have to wait until the 2nd period to see our Blades score. This goal would come already done 1-0 as Markham did squeak one in the early parts of the 1st period. Our assistant captain and #13 Aidan Taylor put up what is likely one of the best performances that didn’t earn the player one of the “3 Stars of the Game” honours this whole season. His 1G, 2A night made him the top scoring Blade of the night and he managed to contribute on all the goals scored by Oakville. He was the reason this goal happened as his forechecking pressure led to a turnover in the Royals end. He quickly funnelled the puck up to Marco Costante who was waiting at the blue line and Costante threw the puck at the net. Luckily, Gleb Akimov was in just the right spot to tap the rebound home after popping out of coverage from the Markham defender!

Only four minutes later at 5:10, Taylor positioned himself right in front of the net. Surely enough, the point shot came on net, just like it often does. AT was ready and performed an absolutely beautiful deflection goal that sent the puck straight down and through the goalie’s legs for the 2-1 goal to grab the lead!

Unfortunately, the rest of the period would not favour the Blades as much as the first 5 minutes did. Markham would leapfrog the Blades with 3 goals before the end of 40 minutes. We would enter the 2nd intermission with a score of 4-2 in favour of the Royals. 

The last goal the Blades would manage on the night would be a result of a great passing play between Wells, Taylor and Akimov. They all looked very in sync as they entered the zone and began feathering passes back and forth to each other until Gleb Akimov found some open space and used his quick release to beat the goalie over his glove. The power play marker would come at 2:43, and was the last goal of the game for the Blades. Meanwhile, Markham would net two more to send this game to a 6-3 final.

The Blades would play next at their Family Day game versus bitter rivals from Burlington. The team often does well in front of big crowds so this next one was bound to be exciting. 

Burlington Cougars

This game against Burlington was special for many reasons. The obvious, it was our Family Day game, taking place in an arena packed with more than 1500 people as we took on the challenge of playing our bitter rivals in the Cougars. Local businesses were on site as well, offering a different experience at the game. The greatest part of this hockey game (other than the game itself) was that the Town of Oakville had donated the ice-time and provided free admission for everyone. This allowed for free admission to anyone who wished to attend one of the last home games of the year. All these factors combined to make this game a special one. 

The team came ready to put on a show, scoring first and only 7 minutes into the contest. After he scored, it had us wondering, is Lachlan Wells playing the wrong sport? He scored by batting the puck right out of mid-air as if he was swinging a baseball bat and just like a home run in baseball, put us on the board. With Taylor and Akimov registering assists on that goal, it's clear to see that this line has some nice chemistry together. 

Wells would also score to get us back in the lead at 14:47. This goal was even more impressive than the last! After a fantastic bank pass from Logan Yovetich, Wells charged up the ice in a 1-on-1 situation with a defenceman from Burlington pressing up to close the gap and attempt to strip the puck. Wells used his body nicely to shield the puck, and slip around the defender. He was about to come across the crease with the puck when he noticed the goalie was cheating away from his post and he slipped a beautiful backhand into the net. If you haven’t seen the goal already, go check our social media pages, it’s so nice we made sure that you could all see the replay.

Just three minutes later our leading goal scorer netted his 23rd goal of the season off a rebound! Very straightforward goal that you love to see your players get rewarded with for getting to the net. At this point, 18:04 had elapsed in the 1st and the Blades held the lead 3-1!

That would all change though, as Burlington would score four times equally divided between the next two periods to take the game by a final score of 5-3. The Blades definitely played well and tried their best against one of the best teams in the league, but it just wasn’t meant to be and they would come up just short of the win. Rather impressively, Gavin McCarthy made 50 saves on 54 shots to keep this team in the game while recording a .926 SV% to entertain the home fans. 

Thanks to a win for Pickering that same night, your Blades are still in playoff contention. Make sure to give them all the support you can when they fight to keep the postseason hopes alive against the 99ers on Thursday, February 23rd at 7:30 PM in Brantford.