The Oakville Blades played their final home game against the Burlington Cougars in front of a large crowd on Family Day. With only two games remaining in the OJHL schedule coming into Monday's contest, the Blades knew a victory was a must, especially with the rival Toronto Jr. Canadiens holding the upper hand right now. Although Oakville was up by as many as three goals in the third period, Burlington kept the game interesting by staging a comeback that ultimately fell short as the Blades managed to snag the 7-6 OT victory.
The first few minutes of the contest was completely controlled by Oakville. With a win being more important than ever for the Blades, Oakville managed to pester Jeremy Currie with shots from angle. Despite the pressure, Burlington would get on the scoreboard first. With Brendan McGlynn unable to track the puck during a goalmouth scramble, Brad Johnson picked up the loose disk in the crease before jamming it home. Daniel Jelic would get it right back a minute later when his point shot beat the Burlington defence before blasting past Currie to tie the game.
Oakville would take sole possession of the lead early in the second. After David Dischiavi dangled past the Burlington defenseman behind the net, Chris Poletek connected a nice pass in front of the net for the goal. It was a nice return for Polotek, who missed time during the first after taking a Dischiavi high stick in the face. Oakville would double their lead with just a minute left in the third after Ross Sloan's pass at the blueline to a streaking Ryan Garvey found its way into the back of the net.
It would take the Blades only 45 seconds to get on the board again. After some nice passing between Oakville's top line, defenceman Will Reilly, playing in his first game as an AP for the Blades, managed to get the puck past Currie to give Oakville the 4-1 lead.
Speaking of tough stretches, things weren't looking bright for Vince Palermo. During a season that has seen him suspended four times, Palermo went hard into the boards and would miss some time after he appeared to have injured his leg. Luckily, he would be back before he could even miss a shift.
The Cougars weren't totally out of the game just yet. After receiving a fantastic cross ice pass from a defenceman, Austin Lepore deked out McGlynn before sliding it home to make it 4-2. The momentum wouldn't last for long, as Greg Allen blast made its way past Currie and into the twine.
The action at the Wave began to pick up. Three minutes after the last Oakville goal, Daniel Campbell beat McGlynn with a great power-play wrister to make it 5-3 with nine minutes remaining in the contest. Exactly sixty seconds later, Mark Bzowey got his first of two goals after a fantastic feed from Greg Campbell to restore the three goal lead. The lead wouldn't last unfortunately, as Lepore, Wyatt Trainer and Viktor Meuller all would add late goals to force the game into overtime. The Blades wouldn't leave the game without the two points, however, as Bzowey's rocket from just inside the blueline gave Oakville the 7-6 overtime victory.
With the Toronto Jr. Canadiens losing their game against the St. Michael's Buzzers on Monday, the Blades will need an extra two points to force a single game elimination tournament against Toronto. Oakville's final game of the season will be at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex on Friday night at 7:30pm when St. Mikes comes to town. We hope to see you all there!