After a close game against the Collingwood Blues that the Blades ultimately lost, Oakville was looking to bounce back in their games against the Georgetown Raiders and Lindsay Muskies.
February 3rd, 2023: Georgetown Raiders at Oakville Blades
For the second straight home game, the Blades could have gotten off to a better start in a game they desperately needed to win.
Just over a minute into the game, Georgetown's captain Rhys Chiddenton scored to give the Raiders an early 1-0 lead.
As the period went on, Oakville tried to get back in the game with a goal of their own but Georgetown extended their lead late in the game with a goal by Aaron Andrade making the game 2-0.
Then with less than two minutes left in the period, Georgetown struck again with a goal by Teddy Puccini to make the game 3-0 as both teams went into intermission
The second period didn't start much better than the first. Brandon Kakei scored for Georgetown just over two minutes into the period to score 4-0.
Three minutes later Georgetown scored again on the powerplay making the game 5-0 and definitely making it look like this game was over.
But the Blades didn't give up - Oakville was granted a powerplay and a loose puck came out front to Luke Johnston and Johnston blasted the puck into the back of the net to make the score 5-1.
With under five minutes left in the period, Oakville got another goal (this time from Logan Yovetich) as he batted a rebound home in the crease to bring the score to 5-2 as the period ended.
For the Blades to get back into the game, they needed to strike quickly in the third period for the slightest shot at getting back in.
The third period did not start well for the team as Aaron Andrade for the Raiders to make the score 6-2.
About four minutes later, Oakville's Gleb Akimov stole the puck at the offensive blue line and put on a sweet move on the goalie to make the game 6-3 Georgetown.
Later in the period, with about seven minutes left, Matthew Wang scored for Oakville to make the game 6-4.
What once seemed bleak for the Blades, now does not seem impossible.
Oakville tried very hard to score more goals but was not able to and Andrew Della Rovere scored into an empty net with 29 seconds left in the game to give the Raiders a 7-4 win.
February 4th, 2023: Lindsay Muskies at Oakville Blades
After a hard-fought game against Georgetown, Oakville had another home game the next game against the Lindsay Muskies of the South/East conference.
Oakville started the game just as they had started the previous few, very flat.
Lindsay opened the scoring eight minutes into the game with a goal by Michael Schermerhorn to give Lindsay a 1-0 lead.
About seven minutes later, Lindsay scored again this time with a goal from Jack Falkner to give the Muskies a 2-0 lead that they would take into intermission.
Three minutes into the second period, after the Blades killed off a penalty, Oakville’s Gleb Akimov broke into the Muskies' zone and, after taking a pass from Lachlan Wells, Akimov unleashed his patented snapshot and roofed the puck into the top corner to cut the lead to 2-1.
Oakville was granted a powerplay three minutes later and after an offensive faceoff win, Lachlan Wells found Aidan Taylor near the side of the net and Taylor sent a blind backhand pass to the slot and Jack Churchill finished off the play to tie the game 2-2.
As the second period kept on going, Oakville started to gain more chances and were able to capitalize on another chance when Lachlan Wells sent a pass over to Noah Patrick and the defenceman swatted the puck into the back of the net giving the Blades their first lead of the game.
After that offensive outburst, Oakville went on the penalty kill and would eventually pay for it as Lindsay’s Nick Sova scored on the advantage to tie the game 3-3.
But Oakville would not let that goal stop their success, before the end of the period, Gleb Akimov sent the puck to Luke Johnston and Johnston sent a one-timer on the net and the puck went in and out of the net so fast that no one knew if the puck went in or not.
Oakville took their 4-3 lead into the third period.
It did not take long for Lindsay to tie the game in the third period. Muskies defenceman Gavin Keller scored early in the period to tie the game 4-4.
Both teams attempted to win the game in regulation, but we got overtime.
In overtime, just as the first overtime period was about to end, Luke Johnston found a wide-open Josh Vagenas and he found the back of the net to give the Blades a big 5-4 victory.
Oakville now has only ten games left this season and are seven points out of the final playoff spot.
That's not an impossible climb - but it's still a big hill. The Blades next play the Pickering Panthers in Pickering this afternoon at 2:30 p.m.