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Blades Advance to Second Round After 5-3 Win Over Rangers

Oakville Blades Jack Jeffers celebrates after scoring Oakville
Oakville Blades Jack Jeffers celebrates after scoring Oakville's second goal on Friday. | Scott Ellis - The Hockey House

The Oakville Blades are off to the second round of the OJHL playoffs following a 5-3 win in game five against North York Rangers on Friday night.

It took just one shot for Oakville to hit the back of the net first. Chris Brill-Morgan got the play started by feeding Ryan Foss on the rush from the blue line. Foss, Oakville’s tied with Brill-Morgan as Oakville’s top playoff performer with four points heading into Friday, then found Bryce Misley who was all alone in front. Jeremie Lintner miss-read the play and allowed Misley to easily tap the puck home, giving the Blades the 1-0 lead after 1:23 of play.

But at 2:57, the Rangers tied it up. On their fourth shot of the contest, Nick Campoli waited until he had the puck in the slot to fire it past Brendan McGlynn’s blocker, tying the game at one goal apiece.

The Blades were hungry to steal back the lead and did so at 13:26. Potential 2017 NHL Draft pick Matthew Kellenberger unleashed a bomb on the net from the point, but Jack Jeffers was there to re-direct the puck past Lintner and in for the 2-1 lead.

North York found themselves on the board next, with Noah Robinson capitalizing at 8:30 in the second. After numerous scoring chances by Oakville, North York took the other way, with Jesse Tucker getting stopped in close. Robinson then found the bouncing rebound at the side of the net and sent it past McGlynn, making it 2-2 with more than half the game still left to go.

But at 11:23, the Blades took back their lead for the third time. This time, Bailey Newton’s shot was stopped by Lintner, but Jackson Bales exploited the rebound by whacking at it in the slot between Lintner’s glove and left pad to make it 3-2 for the home team.

The Blades wanted to put as much padding on their lead as possible. With 11:55 left in the game, they did just that. Bales had an open-lane for the one-time chance, but it was Tyler Hildebrandt who was in a good spot to tip in the goal to make it 4-2 and give Oakville the two-goal lead.

They weren’t done just yet. At 10:42, Christian Rajic made it 5-2 after Drew Worrad fed the speedy winger in front of the net, with Rajic tapping in the pass all alone to give Oakville the three-goal lead and the eventual victory. Ture Linden would add one for North York, but it didn’t matter as Oakville would hold on for the 5-3 win.

The Oakville Blades will begin their second-round playoff series next week.


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