The first place Aurora Tigers traveled to Sixteen Mile for the second of two meetings against the Oakville Blades on Friday. The Tigers have used strong defensive play to go 18-4-0-0 on the road this season, becoming the first team in the league to clinch a playoff spot. Heading in to their contest with Oakville, the traveling squad had won 20 out of their past 22 games, while Oakville had won only two of their eight games in 2014. By the end of the game, Blades puckstopper Brendan McGlynn made 47 saves on 49 shots, but that wasn't enough as the Aurora Tigers left Oakville with the 2-1 victory.
Aurora had total puck control in the first few minutes. Visibly faster, the red-hot Tigers team spent the first few minutes in the Oakville zone. The visiting team had trouble getting past the defensive pairing of Greg Campbell and Brandon Lukezic, who were making it tough for the gold and black to get the puck towards McGlynn. Unfortunately for Oakville, the tie game wouldn't last long, as Adam DiBrina ripped the puck under the arm of McGlynn after receiving a nice pass from Tyler Boston.
Oakville would begin to get some pressure of their own, cutting down the shot total to 13-10 after ten minutes. Kevin Entmaa looked strong between the pipes for Aurora, proving why he has the best goals against average (2.04) in the league.
The Blades were unable to crack the score sheet, and it hurt in them at the end of the period. Aurora forward Calvin Higley poked the puck past a sprawling McGlynn, who was unable to track a loose puck behind his skate and outside his line of sight.
Oakville was faced with a scare eight minutes into the second period. After getting high sticked in the face by Michael Laidley, Vince Palermo would need assistance off the ice. Defensive partner Marcel Fatovic would come to his aid, dropping the gloves with Laidley in a very one-sided bout for the Oakville blueliner. Palermo would return shortly before the period came to a close, only to crush Laidley with a massive open ice hit that shook the entire arena.
The Blades had a rough first period in terms of shot, allowing their opponents to take a 20-11 lead after twenty minutes of play. While they did get out-shot again in the second, they managed to record 14 compared to Aurora's 17 in a much improved second frame for Oakville.
Kris Bennett has had an incredible season, and it continued late in the third period. After getting snake bitten on multiple chances in the first 2/3 of the contest, he picked up a goal mouth scramble in front of the Aurora goaltender and roofed it home, cutting their deficit to just one.
Oakville had an incredible flurry of chances in the dying minutes of the game. With every point being extremely important at this stage of the season, the Blades pulled McGlynn with a minute and a half remaining in the game in an attempt to tie the game up late. The Blades were able to get a few decent shots towards the opposite net in the final thirty seconds of the contest, but a hand pass call with seven seconds remaining killed any momentum they had previously. With the faceoff outside of the zone, the Blades were unable to get control of the puck before the final buzzer rang, signaling a 2-1 victory to the seemingly unbeatable Tigers.