The Oakville Blades celebrate with the Buckland Cup they won in Wellington Thursday night. The Blades swept the hometown Dukes in the OJHL Championship Series. (Photo by Timothy Bates/OJHL Images)

By Ron Valentine

PRE-GAME:

The last time the Ontario Junior Hockey League Championship Series went just four games was in 1998 when the Milton Merchants beat the Trenton Sting.

In 2003-2004 the Merchants became the IceHawks. The Sting, in 2007-2008, became the Quinte West Pack and the following season the Hercs.

During that regular season Darren Haydar set club records for Milton with 71 goals and 140 points. Following four seasons at the University of New Hampshire Darren would go on to have a sterling career in the AHL and made NHL appearances for the Nashville Predators, the Atlanta Thrashers and Colorado Avalanche. He is still active, suiting up for the Dundas Real McCoys senior club.

Thursday evening, the Oakville Blades were in Wellington looking to sweep the Buckland Cup series. They took their record of 15 wins and just three losses during the post-season in to play the East Division club who were without OJHL leading playoff pointscorer Andrew Rinaldi, who picked up a suspension at the end of the second period in Game 3.

Going into Game 4, the Blades' Spencer Kersten was tied with Rinaldi for the playoff goal-scoring lead with a dozen each. The Princeton commit is on a five-game goalscoring run and in four of those has netted two. His former club, the Waterloo Siskins, were also in action looking to sweep the Niagara Falls Canucks and advance to the GOJHL's Sutherland Cup Jr. B final. (The Canucks won 4-3 to stay alive.)

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THE GAME:

The Oakville Blades are the 2019 OJHL Buckland Cup champions as they took a squeaker in Wellington by a 3-2 final scoreline. 

For the visiting Blades rookie forward Ryan O'Hara was back in the lineup. He had been out since the series against the Buffalo Junior Sabres.

Tyson Gilmour got the only goal of the first period, his fifth of the playoffs, with just over five minutes left.

In the second Harrison Israels, also his fifth, got the Blades even on an early powerplay.

The Mississauga native, who played last season for the VooDoos of Powassan in the NOJHL, notched his second of the contest two and a half minutes into the final frame and less than sixty seconds later blueliner Garrett Pyke scored what would prove to be the winner, also with the man advantage.

With just a little more than five minutes left on the clock, Elijah Gonsalves had his 11th marker of the postseason to make it a one-goal game but that would be as close as the home team would be able to get.

Not much solace at this point for Wellington's Gilmour and Rinaldi, but the pair would end up tied atop the pointscoring leaderboard for the OJHL playoff season with 27 points each. Gilmour led the way in assists with 22. The game marked the final junior appearances for Dukes 20-year-olds Rinaldi, Gilmour, Keenan Eddy, Adam Usinger, Jacob Thousand and goaltender Logan Bateman.

The Blades’ Will Barber made 25 saves and ended the playoffs with a sparkling 1.37 GAA. For the Dukes’ Bateman turned back 29. Spencer Kersten had two assists and finished the post- season as the Blades' point leader with 12 goals and an equal number of assists. He and Rinaldi finished atop the heap with the most goals in the second season. Spencer was named OJHL playoff MVP.

Next up for the OJHL champs is the Dudley-Hewitt Cup in Cochrane, which gets underway for them on Tuesday, April 30, against the NOJHL Champions. In that League the Hearst Lumberjacks lead the Soo Thunderbirds three games to one. The SIJHL reps will be either the Thunder Bay North Stars of the Red Lake Miners. The North Stars also lead by three games to one.

A big year for the top-ranked Blades led by OJHL Coach of the Year Mike Tarantino, a strong and balanced club at every position, as well as a terrific performance by the Dukes who battled their way from a fourth place finish in the East through three tough playoff series, two of which went to the limit.

CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Oakville Blades vs Wellington Dukes

Game 1, Friday, April 12, Oakville 6, Wellington 0

Game 2, Sunday, April 14, Oakville 4, Wellington, 3

Game 3, Tuesday, April 16, at Oakville 3, Wellington 1

Game 4, Thursday, April 18, Oakville 3, Wellington 2

Oakville wins best-of-seven series 4-0

Follow Ron Valentine on Twitter @ronandlynda