So far this season has not gone according to plan for the Oakville Blades. Before this weekend, the team had a 3-11-0 record and were on a six-game losing streak.
They hoped to get back in the win column with three games against Stouffville, Haliburton, and Georgetown.
October 20th, 2022: Oakville Blades at Stouffville Spirit
On Thursday the Blades travelled to Stouffville for a match against the Spirit.
Both teams met at the Players Showcase back in September and Stouffville bested Oakville by a score of 4-1, so Oakville was looking for some revenge.
The game didn’t start great for Oakville as Stouffville took the lead halfway through the game.
While on a powerplay, Stouffville’s Michael Di Santo sent a pass over Peter Kioussis and he slid the puck to the backhand and put the puck past Oakville’s goaltender to give the Spirit a 1-0 lead.
The Blades tied the game six minutes later, Conor Thacker sent a pass to Matthew Wang in the neutral zone and Wang used his speed to blow by the Stouffville defenseman and he slid the puck five-hole to bring the score to 1-1.
During the celebration, Thacker took a roughing after the whistle penalty and gave the Spirit a two-minute power play.
On that penalty, Matthew Wang retrieved the puck in the defensive zone and once again sped down the left wing.
Wang crashed the net and pulled the puck to his backhand and slid the puck far side on Stouffville’s goalie to give the Blades a 2-1 lead that they took into intermission.
Eight minutes into the second period, Stouffville was granted another powerplay and Ryan Harvey sent a pass to Michael Di Santo on the left wing boards and Di Santo fired a puck far side on Gavin McCarthy to tie the game 2-2.
Two minutes later, Jacob Crisp retrieved the puck for Oakville and entered the zone and cut into the middle, Crisp took a shot and it bounced over Stouffville’s goalie after making the initial save and trickled into the net to give Oakville a 3-2 lead.
Shortly after, the Spirit were given another powerplay and Peter Kioussis got the puck down low and sent the puck across to Michael Di Santo and he buried the puck tying the game at 3.
In the dying seconds of the period, the Blades were hoping to keep the game tied heading into the final frame.
But the Spirit had other ideas as Ryan Harvey sent a puck in from the blue line that beat Gavin McCarthy with 3.7 seconds left in the period to give the Spirit a 4-3 lead heading into the third period.
32 seconds into the period, Odaro Eware was sprung on a breakaway and was hauled down by an Oakville player and given a penalty shot.
Eware picked up the puck at centre ice and made a few moves and shot the puck and was stopped by the blocker of Gavin McCarthy to keep the game at 4-3.
Shortly after the penalty shot, Stouffville retrieved the puck and Ryan Russel sent a beautiful pass to Peter Kioussis and he buried the puck into the empty net and gave the Spirit a 5-3 lead.
Oakville tried to get back into the game but were unsuccessful and lost this game 5-3.
October 21st, 2022: Haliburton Huskies vs. Oakville Blades
After a tough loss to Stouffville, Oakville travelled back home to face off against one of the top teams in the country in the Haliburton Huskies.
Oakville definitely had their work cut out for them in this game.
The game started off well for Oakville as they tried to keep pace with Haliburton and kept the game scoreless in the first ten minutes.
But with less than seven minutes left in the period, the damn finally broke and the Huskies scored two quick goals by Christian Stevens and Patrick Saini to make the score 2-0.
Oakville started to play some good hockey after they went down two and hoped to at worse keep the score 2-0 heading into the intermission.
But the Huskies got a late goal from former Mississauga Steelhead Ty Collins to give Haliburton a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
At the start of the period, Haliburton scored again with a goal by Myles Perry to make the game 4-0 Huskies.
Oakville got one goal back from Matthew Wang with just over five minutes left in the period to bring the score to 4-1 and that is how the score stood heading into intermission.
In the third period, the Blades tried desperately to get a goal but could not beat the Huskies goalie and Haliburton added an empty netter to win this game 5-1.
October 22nd, 2022: Oakville Blades at Georgetown Raiders
After another big loss this time at the hands of the Haliburton Huskies, Oakville had another quick turnaround and played another game this time against the Georgetown Raiders.
Both teams played an extremely tight and close game, both clubs seemed evenly matched and gave each other a great challenge.
This game was so close that no goals were scored in the first period and both teams went into the locker room with a 0-0 score.
In the second period, the game finally saw some goal-scoring.
Halfway through the second period, Aaron Andrade sent a spectacular pass to Rhys Chiddenton and Chiddenton put the puck past McCarthy to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.
In the final two minutes of the period, Luke Johnston blazed down the left wing boards and found Marco Costante in the slot and Costante did not miss the open cage and tied the game 1-1 for the Blades as the second period ended.
In the third period, no goals were scored but both teams played their hearts out to try to get a goal.
The first overtime period also did not see any scoring so we headed to 3-on-3 overtime.
3-on-3 overtime went all the way to the final seconds and in the final 20 seconds, Georgetown pulled off a risky play as they pulled their goalie for an extra attacker.
This concept has been used in the KHL by former NHL player Sergei Federov as he is famous for pulling his goalie in 3-on-3 overtime.
Georgetown blazed down the right wing and Andrew Dell Rovere sent a beautiful pass to the extra attacker Aaron Andrade amd Andrade made no mistake and ended this game in double overtime.
Oakville finally gets a point in the standings but continues their losing streak.
Oakville’s next set of games will be Friday at home against Collingwood and Saturday against Markham.