Photo Credit: Cameron Ernst / OJHL Images

Trenton Golden Hawks

The Golden Hawks flew into town through a huge snowstorm to play their only meeting against your Oakville Blades of the 2022-2023 season. This game was also the 2nd last game the Blades would play this season, having been eliminated from playoff contention. It was also the Blades Billet Appreciation & Alumni Night, which featured all of our billet families being recognized, and multiple former Blades players who have gone on to have successful college and professional hockey careers.
 

The final score of the game would be 9-2 as the Golden Hawks would win 2 points in this inter-conference matchup. Leading the way for Oakville was Gleb Akimov with 2 goals including a beautiful curl and drag shot top shelf at 19:59 of the 1st period. Assisting on both goals was assistant captain Jacob Crisp who would also take a shot in the 3rd period which Akimov used to score his 2nd of the night off a rebound. 

Although the Blades certainly wished they could pull out the win on Billet Appreciation & Alumni Night, there were some good chances and a great goal from Akimov to show the home crowd of 350. On top of everything, Sam Edmands managed to put up 51 saves in the win after being peppered with shots all game long. The next, and final, game of the Blades 2022-2023 season will take place the next day (Saturday March 4th) and it will be the graduating game for our overage captain Jake Alcaraz. 

Wellington Dukes

This was the last game of the season for the Blades, but it was also the last game of the Junior A career of Jake Alcaraz. Alcaraz played 75 games in a Blades uniform and is our co-captain for this 2022-2023 season. In his last game as a Blade he registered an assist and had a 75 FO% throughout the game. Another stellar performance came from Gavin McCarthy who made 68 saves on 73 shots which led him to a .931 SV% in his 41st and final game of the season. 

The Blades opened the scoring only 1:04 into the game when Gleb Akimov created a turnover in the offensive end straight to Jack Churchill. Churchill walked in and it took him a couple shots, but he got the puck past the goalie for the first goal of the game in front of 400 people in attendance at Sixteen Mile!

Oakville would lose the lead, and then get it back all within a span of 6 minutes as Wellington scored and then Wells responded, with assists going to Alcaraz and Russell. Off of a nice cross-ice from Russell, Alcaraz got the puck and had some space so he walked in and took a low shot. Waiting in front was Lachlan Wells who deflected the puck in and helped the Blades convert on the power play!

From here, the Dukes would run away with the game scoring 4 unanswered to take the matchup by a final score of 5-2. It was a special night nonetheless, with special ceremonies taking place for our co-captain from Arizona. The players, notably Crisp, McCarthy and Alcaraz, took extra time to get off the ice, after the game was over. Alcaraz would stay out and watch his tribute video play on the jumbotron as all the other staff and players filed off into their dressing rooms. After a couple minutes, Alcaraz slowly made his way off the ice and when he stepped off, it brought the official end to our season. Thank you Jake "Alcy" Alcaraz for all you gave to Oakville and thank you Blades fans for sticking with us through everything!

By Ty Brooks