It's rare for the Oakville Blades to host a Monday night home game at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex, but it was no ordinary night, that’s for sure. The Toronto Lakeshore Patriots traveled down to Oakville in a Remembrance Day showdown between the two South Division rivals, the first of four contests between the two clubs. Lakeshore, sitting in second place in the entire OJHL, looked like the favourites coming into the game, however the Blades looked sharp throughout, potting four goals in an eventual 4-0 shutout, marking the third straight win for the red, white and blue.
It only took two shots and five minutes for Ryan Garvey to open up the scoring for Oakville on a nice wrist shot from the hash marks. The goal began the nice start that the Blades have been lacking for the majority of the season, and doing well against the leaders of the South Division is huge for a team like the Blades. The Patriots weren't ready to just roll over and give up, however, taking 18 shots during the first period alone. Evan Buitenhuis was between the pipes for the Blades Monday following a great 52 save performance on Thursday against the Kingston Vees, and it was clear “Boots” was ready for another tough, shot-filled night.
The Blades came out hot once again during the second period, recording a goal on just three minutes into the frame. This time, it was Oakville's top scorer Ross Sloan ripping it past Jeremy Helvig for the 2-0 lead after just eight shots. Sloan was looking to improve on his game from Friday night when he wasn't able to capitalize on both a penalty shot and open net opportunity late in the contest. Only three minutes later, the Blades would get another one when Kamil Tkaczuk managed to get the trickling puck between the five hole of Helvig and into the net for the 3-0 advantage. The period proved to be a huge one for the Blades, who out-shot their opponents 11-4.
Oakville continued on with their impressive performance during the third when Dalton Bew following a great pass from behind the net from Ross Sloan, putting the Blades up by four. Both Bew and Sloan have had impressive seasons thus far for Oakville after getting acquired in separate deals during the OJHL off-season.
The Patriots were held below their usual level of production. Toronto Lakeshore puts an average of 4.0 pucks into the net per game, however Buitenhuis looked fantastic throughout the game, making multiple great glove and pad saves on shots that maybe should have found their way into the back of the net. The performance earned the goaltender the third star honour, only to be beat out by Sloan and Bew. At the other end, Jeremy Helvig recorded 16 saves for Toronto Lakeshore.
The Blades incurred 14 minutes in penalty time with seven minors. They put up an impenetrable defensive front on the penalty kill, and did not allow Toronto Lakeshore to score on any of its four power plays, including when Daniel Jelic was ejected from the game in the closing minutes.