The Pickering Panthers traveled down to Oakville to take on the Blades in the first of two meetings between the two teams this weekend. Prior to last week, the Blades were riding a four game winning streak, however their luck went south recently as they've dropped three of the past four contests, getting outscored 18-3 in the process. The Panthers, on the flip side, came in with a three game winning streak, with their most recent win being a 3-0 victory over Georgetown last Saturday. The two teams played a very even contest and eventually had to settle it out in the shootout, with the Panthers erasing an early deficit to take home the 5-4 win.
The game started off poorly for the Blades, as Pickering's Mike Nedoszytko gave his team the 1-0 lead on just the first shot recorded on the night, right below the glove of Brendan McGlynn. Despite the early goal, Oakville would spice up their attack in the next couple of minutes, and it all began when forward Ryan Garvey went in all alone with eleven minutes remaining in the frame, but the puck sailed over the crossbar and out of play. Oakville wouldn't be scoreless for too long as Greg Allen took a beautiful slap shot from the point to tie it up halfway through the period. Less then a minute later, Carmine Vietri got another one past goaltender Steven Dombrosky thanks to a pass from Ryan Takamatsu, who got his first career OJHL point in just his second shift. It wasn't a good start for the Dombrosky, who allowed two goals on as many shots in a short time frame after getting the 3-0 shutout of Orangeville last week.
Defenseman Vince Palermo took a slap shot at the back of the leg, and while he would miss a bit of time, he would return after a few shifts off. In the first 15 seconds of the second period, Joe Seney took a wild ride into the boards after losing his footing, and would require some attention at the bench, but would also return.
Many teams in the NHL played early games on Friday due to the American Thanksgiving, and to follow the trend, Oakville and Pickering continued to trade goals early, this time coming in the first minute of the second. Right after Seney took his slip, David Dischiavi managed to steal the puck from Corey Helliwell in front of the Pickering net and flipped it over the glove of Dombrosky. Nicholas Lepone got one back for the Panthers approximately forty seconds after when he ripped the puck over the catching mitt of McGlynn, cutting the Blades lead to 3-2. Pickering's goal wouldn't provide much in terms of momentum, as Allen got an identical goal to the one he scored in the first, resulting in the 5th glove hand marker of the contest.
Considering three goals were scored on the exact same side, it would give the impression that Dombrosky was having a tough night, but it wasn't the case. The shots were 26-23 for for Oakville after two, and it was clear that Dombrosky was facing the much tougher chances, making some great glove hand stops in the process. At the other end of the ice, McGlynn made up for the earlier blunder in the first minute of the match-up, playing a consistently strong game despite missing time due to sickness.
The quick goal trend continued in the third when Pickering's Brodie Tutton got past every opposing Blades player and got it past McGlynn to put his team behind only by one. Tensions begin to arise following the goal, and eventually it all boiled over when Marcel Fatovic and Cam Palmer were both ejected for a spirited bout following an impressive pad stop by McGlynn. The Panthers managed to tie the game up at four apiece when Nedoszytko got his second marker of the game on the doorstop. As a result, the game had to go into overtime, but when that settled nothing, it was off to the shootout. Sean Kohler got the first goal of the All-Star style event for Oakville, but Robert Cammalleri and Chris Sekelyk got consecutive markers to give the Panthers the come from behind 5-4 victory.