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Blades win a big game against Brantford, but lose two huge games against Georgetown

Lukas Bernasiewicz
Lukas Bernasiewicz

From March 11 to 13, the Oakville Blades played three games, one against the Brantford 99ers and two against the Georgetown Raiders. 

March 11, 2022. Brantford 99ers @ Oakville Blades

Heading into Friday’s tilt against the Brantford 99ers, the Oakville Blades held a slim one-point lead over the 99ers in the standings for the final playoff spot in the West Division.

Another mountain that the Blades needed to climb over was their long list of injured players out of the lineup for this game.

Oakville had to substitute four young players into their lineup to fill the skates of their veteran players.

This game had major implications for each team and made for an extremely entertaining match.

The first period had a great pace, with both teams trading chances, keeping each goalie busy.

No goals were scored in the first, but it was definitely a matter of time before someone broke the game open. The person responsible for that was Brantford’s Ethan Klemen after he took a pass from teammate Jaden Lee and put a drag move on Oakville's goaltender by roofing the backhander. The 99ers had a 1-0 lead. 

Near the end of the period, Oakville tied the game after Callum Arrnot fed Adam Tucci with a beautiful pass that he roofed, tying the game at one apiece. 

After both teams exchanged penalties with less than a minute left in the second period, a mad scramble in front of Brantford's Ben Bonisteel led to a buzzer-beating goal by Chase Strychuluk assisted by Zach Wigle. It gave Oakville the 2-1 lead heading into the second intermission.

At the start of the third period, Oakville got on the board again with a tip in front by Evan Pringle off of a Jacob Crisp shot, giving Oakville a 3-1 lead.

Shortly after that goal was scored, Brantford got back in the game with a redirection goal by Kurt Watson off of a Trevor McDowell shot to cut Oakville’s lead to 3-2.

Then Brantford tied the game after Adrian Rebelo one-timed a Liam Shwedyk pass into the back of the net to make the score 3-3.

But the Blades were determined to win this game and would not let the last two goals stop them from winning.

With less than 10 minutes left in the game, Chase Strychaluk won a puck battle in the corner and got the puck to Adam Tucci. Tucci then sent the puck to a wide-open Jake Alcaraz, who wired it into the back of the net to give Oakville the 4-3 lead.

The Blades proceeded to play an amazing and structured defensive game shutting down the 99ers for the rest of the game.

With less than 30 seconds left and Brantford’s net empty, Oakville’s Josh Kudo made an amazing diving effort to score a goal to secure a 5-3 Blades win.

After the game, Blades Assistant Coach Jamie Allison commented on how the Blades defence were able to play so well with so many players out of the lineup.

He said, "Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with the way they played tonight. You’re looking for guys to step up and play simple and do the little things right. I think they all did a really good job tonight. They had a lot of poise with the puck tonight, which is good."

Lukas Bernasiewicz
Lukas Bernasiewicz
March 12, 2022. Georgetown Raiders @ Oakville Blades

After Saturday’s triumphant win over Brantford, the Blades needed another big win against Georgetown to gain more traction in the West division.

With only one point separating these two teams in the standings, both teams needed the regulation win.

The game did not start well for the Oakville Blades as they surrendered the game's first goal.

Just over eight minutes into the game, Aaron Andrade took a great breakout pass from Trystan Mughal. He made a drag move to the backhand and scored to give the Raiders the crucial first goal.

Later in the period, Rhys Chiddenton fed Andrew Della Rovere a perfect pass. Della Rovere tipped it in to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead.

After a lacklustre period, the Blades went into the first intermission down 2-0.

The second period did not start much better for the Blades; the Raiders got another goal 1:20 into the second period with a point shot snipe by Eric Russel. The Raiders took a commanding 3-0 lead.

The Blades got back into the game with a scramble goal in front of the net by Josh Kudo, making the score 3-1 Raiders.

The Raiders, however, restored the two-goal lead with a rebound goal from Andrew Della Rovere to make the score 4-1 Raiders.

Oakville got another goal back on the powerplay by Evan Pringle, who wired a shot bar down to cut the lead to 4-2 Raiders.

But, Andrew Della Rovere completed the hattrick with a tip-in goal to make the game 5-2 Raiders at the second intermission.

The third period was a complete mess for the Blades. They were not able to generate any offence in a situation where they needed goals.

Andrew Della Rovere scored again for the Raiders getting his fourth goal to cap off a 6-2 win for the Raiders.

After this game, the Raiders overtook the Blades spot for third in the West division.

Lukas Bernasiewicz
Lukas Bernasiewicz
March 13, 2022. Oakville Blades @ Georgetown Raiders

After a disappointing performance at home, the Blades went on the road to face the Raiders again and reclaim third place in the West.

The injury bug kept on biting the Blades with Jacob Crisp and Adam Tucci out for this game.

Crisp was on crutches with what looked like a pretty bad leg injury, and Tucci was out with an arm injury.

The Blades opened the scoring with a powerplay goal by Zach Wigle off of a Josh Kudo rebound to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

Georgetown answered back shortly after with a goal by Eric Rusell off of a great pass by Andrew Della Rovere to bring the score to 1-1.

Georgetown took the lead when Oakville’s goaltender was unable to freeze the puck, allowing Kyle Kussmann to jump on the loose puck and tapped it home to give the Raiders a 2-1 lead.

Soon after, Eric Andrade dangled past the Oakville defence and roofed a shot top corner over Tristan Malbeouf to give Georgetown a 3-1 lead.

But the Blades got back in the game with exactly five minutes left to go in the period when Chase Strychaluk danged the skates off of Georgetown’s Mikael Kingo to get Oakville back within one.

Both teams traded chances in the last five minutes, but the first period ended with Georgetown up 3-2.

The Blades looked for the equalizer in the second period, but a big turnover in the offensive zone led to a breakaway for the Raiders Dennis Golovatchev. He was hauled down from behind and awarded a penalty shot.

Golovatchev went down the middle of the ice, made a slight move and shot it off the post and out, keeping the score 3-2.

After the penalty shot, Oakville went on the PK and needed a big kill.

The Blades got way more than just a kill. A mishandled puck at the red line led to a Zach Wigle breakaway that he buried on the backhand to tie the game 3.

Shortly after that goal, with 40 seconds left in the penalty to Oakville, Mason Zebeski pickpocketed the Georgetown defence and went in on his breakaway.

Zebeski moved to the backhand and roofed it over Kingo to give Oakville the 4-3 lead.

Oakville took that lead into the intermission and looked to shut down the Raiders in the third in order to secure a major two points in the standings.

After a great eight minutes of the period, the Blades took a costly penalty that started to de-rail their game.

On a Georgetown powerplay, Robert Strachan found Eric Russel on the right-wing boards. Russel squeaked a shot through the legs of Malbeouf to tie the game at 4.

Three minutes after the tying goal, the Blades start to scramble in their end and become discombobulated.

Their confusion leads to a wide-open shot by Kyle Kussmann. He makes no mistake and scored to make the game 5-4 Raiders.

Just over a minute later, Chris Ishmael squeaked a shot past Malbeouf that just crossed the line and gave the Raiders a 6-4 lead.

Georgetown would add an empty netter to give them a 7-4 win and a three-point advantage over the Blades in the standings.

After the game, Blades Head Coach Ross Sloan defended his team, saying, "At the end of the day, I’m proud of our guys and really proud of the effort. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the win, but we have to give our guys credit when credit is deserved. They played their hearts out tonight. It’s just unfortunate that a couple plays lead to some powerplays, and they (Georgetown) capitalized on those chances."

Sloan commented on Oakville’s goaltending situation, saying, "I’m not concerned. Tristan and (Cole) DeFazio have been really good for us all year. I thought Tristan played pretty good tonight, but he may want one or two of those goals back, but at that point, the game is almost out of reach for us. I loved the way he played tonight, and DeFazio has been a rock for us all year."

The Blades now sit fourth in the west division with 46 points and are three points behind the Raiders for third. If the playoffs started today, the Blades would play the Burlington Cougars as the road team.


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