The Oakville Blades' annual Pink in the Rink event proved to be successful on the ice, beating the Milton Icehawks by a score of 9-0.
The Blades were very confident about their chances against the Icehawks heading into the game. Milton has failed to win a game in nearly four months. Oakville's start may not have been exactly what they were aiming for, but after Ryan Garvey scored on a beautiful breakaway play before the halfway point of the first, it was exactly what they needed. Michael Mannara made a very good pass on the play, finding the Blades captain all alone near the blue line. Garvey then proceeded to break in and deke out Jacob DeVincentis to give Oakville the 1-0 lead.
With about four minutes remaining in the period, the Blades were able to take the 2-0 lead. Once again, Garvey scored on a very similar play, beating DeVincentis with the breakaway backhander after taking a pass from Christian Rajic.
Rajic was able to score a trio of goals on Friday night against Mississauga, but he decided to allow one of his teammates to do the same on Saturday. Garvey got his third of the night with three minutes completed in the second after stealing the puck off of Drew Worrad in the faceoff dot to the left of the Milton net before firing it all alone in the slot to make it 3-0 Blades.
A minute after Garey got his natural hat-trick, a different Blades player found the twine. This time, defenseman Brayden Sampson got one with a quick wrist shot, beating DeVincentis before he had a chance to even react to give Oakville the 4-0 goal advantage.
With twelve minutes remaining in the second period, the Blades scored a goal from their fourth line. Brandon Doherty did most of the work, making some moves around the right of the Milton net before sending it off to Peyton Reeves. Reeves didn't get a good handle on the shot, but he still managed to beat DeVincentis with a weird one to make it 5-0.
Then a minute after, Tyler Rollo got a solid assist after dropping the puck to Josh Kosack in the slot. Kosack was originally stopped, but he put an end to DeVincentis' night after capitalizing on the rebound to make it 6-0 before the halfway point of the battle. Less than a minute after that, Eric Holland added to Oakville's lead by sending a quick wrist shot below Anthony Coletta's arm and in for the first goal against for Milton's backup in the game.
Oakville's dominance wasn't done. With nearly 2:30 left in the middle frame, Garvey got his fourth goal of the game after Rollo found him all alone in the slot, easily flicking a shot glove side past Coletta's for the 8-0 goal, with half of them coming from the Blades captain. Kosack would add a second goal in the game to help cap off the big victory, leading Oakville to a 9-0 win over Milton.
With the win, the Blades will focus their efforts on a tough battle against the Trenton Golden Hawks on Tuesday on the road. Oakville's next home game will be on January 30th when Milton returns, but this time, it will be at Oakville Arena, the original home of the Blades. Hope to see you there!