The Oakville Blades played host to the St. Michael's Buzzers in a rare Saturday night home game at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Oakville came into the contest holding the eighth and final playoff spot, but with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens taking down the Buffalo Jr. Sabres earlier today, two points was all they needed to hold their ground. Unfortunately for the home team, the Blades would fall to the Buzzers for the second time in eight days as Victor Adamo made 36 saves in an eventual 4-1 St. Mike's victory.
The fans were treated to an action packed opening period between the two South Division rivals. Having only played a week ago in St. Michaels, the Blades and Buzzers showed fantastic intensity right off the draw. Brendan McGlynn was between the pipes again for Oakville after recording 47 saves the night before in a 2-1 loss against Aurora. The first ten minutes didn't result in much action for the young netminder, but he managed to stop all three shots that came his way during that time. At the other end of the ice, Victor Adamo had the tougher competition, making some fantastic glove and pad saves on the likes of Ross Sloan, Kris Bennett and Dalton Bew. After an exciting twenty minutes that featured enticing physical play and good chances at both ends, the two clubs would head to the change room scoreless.
The second period would be an almost carbon copy of the first. The goaltenders weren't incredibly busy as fans usually witness at SMSC, but that wasn't to say either tendy had an easy night. For Oakville, McGlynn showed fantastic reflexes on a diving glove save while his team were down two men, keeping his team in the game almost by himself. In the other crease, Adamo had the highlight of the night when he made a quick sprawling toe save on Mark Bzowey with a few minutes left.
The Buzzers thought they had the first goal of the contest three minutes into the third. After McGlynn lost track of the puck following a fantastic glove stop, Joseph Berton flipped the loose puck into the Oakville net. Luckily for the Blades, the guy was ruled to be no good because Stefano Pezzetta knocked McGlynn into the net, knocking the posts off the moorings. St. Michaels would eventually make their trip worthwhile when star forward Jake Evans roofed the puck over the glove of McGlynn for the go ahead marker.
Ross Sloan, Oakville's leading offensive threat this season, was hoping to find the back of the net in an effort to turn around a recent slump. A fantastic penalty kill almost allowed him to get his chance. After stealing the puck while shorthanded at his own blue line, Sloan was left all alone on a breakaway, but Adamo made an incredible glove save on the deke attempt.
Things began to go downhill for the Blades. First, CJ Shugart converted an impressive pass from Evans on the point into the second St. Michaels goal with ten minutes remaining in the game. Shortly after, David Italiano also turned an Evans feed into a goal for his club, capitalizing on a five on three opportunity.
The Blades began to breathe a little bit of life near the end of the game. With two St. Michael's players in the box, Greg Campbell took an absolute blast from the right faceoff dot to cut the deficit to two. Unfortunately for Oakville, it meant little in terms of a comeback effort, as Italiano recorded his second goal of the contest in a wide open net, finishing off his team's 4-1 victory.