The Oakville Blades had a long week of hockey this past week as they played four games in five days.
The first two of those games were at the OJHL Governors Showcase in Cobourg where all OJHL teams can show scouts from schools or scouts from other leagues all of their talents.
Game #1: Oakville Blades vs. Pickering Panthers (Tuesday, Oct. 26)
Game one against Pickering was the first of two games for the blades at the OJHL Governors Showcase. Heading into this game, Oakville hadn’t played Pickering yet this season, meaning both teams were heading into this game without knowing what each team looked like in person.
The game started and Oakville opened the scoring early in the first period with a goal by Michael Tiveron assisted by Brenden Bowie and Evan Pringle four minutes in. The rest of the period saw no scoring as the blades went into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.
However, at the very end of the first period, Oakville’s Parker Murray took an interference penalty giving Pickering a two-minute powerplay to start the second period.
Pickering took advantage of that powerplay as Ian Martin scored on the power play assisted by Brendan Tomlinson and Adams-Matthews Peyton to tie the game 1-1. Pickering took the lead on a goal by Matthew Altomare assisted by Lucas Rowe and Aron Jessli.
Pickering extended their lead to 3-1 on a goal by Josh Simpson assisted by Lucas Rowe and Aron Jessli.
Pickering scored another goal making the lead 4-1 on a goal by Aron Jessli assisted by Alex Cunningham and Matthew Altomare.
Oakville got one back with a goal by Zach Wigle assisted by Chase Strychaluk and Owen Wilson making the game 4-2 Pickering.
The Zach attack struck again with his second goal of the period assisted by Aaron Chiroat and Cole Weiger before the end of the second period making the game 4-3 at the second intermission.
Unfortunately for Oakville, the Panthers seemed to turn it on in the third. Pickering scored first in the third with a goal by Ben Pickell assisted by Lucas LaPaul and Owen Brady giving the Panthers a 5-3 lead.
The Blades got one goal back by Michael Tiveron assisted by Cole Weiger making the game 5-4.
Lucas Rowe restored the two-goal lead for Pickering making the game 6-4, and Alex Cunningham made the game 7-4 for Pickering with assists from Ben Pickell and Lucas LaPalm.
Zach Wigle got one goal back to complete the hattrick making the game 7-5 but two more goals by the Panthers near the end of the third would put the game out of reach making the game 9-5.
Michael Tiveron scored near the end to get one goal back for Oakville but it was not enough and Oakville would lose their first game of the showcase 9-6.
Game #2: Oakville Blades vs. Stouffville Spirit (Wednesday, Oct. 27)
Oakville played their next game of the OJHL Govenors Showcase the next day against the Stouffville Spirt. Similar to Pickering, both of these two teams have not played each other yet this season so neither team did not know what to expect from each other.
The game started and no score was seen for the first five minutes. The Blades opened the scoring with a goal by Parker Murray assisted by Andrew Brown and Brenden Bowie 5:53 into the first period.
Oakville extended their lead to 2-0 with a goal on the powerplay by Brenden Bowie assisted by Chase Strychaluk and Michael Tiveron.
Stouffville got on the board with a powerplay goal by Bailey Kirwin assisted by Pearce Baker and Cody Ticen cutting Oakville’s lead to 2-1 and that is how the period would end.
The second period saw no scoring in the first ten minutes until Aaron Chiroat scored his first goal of the season giving the Blades a 3-1 lead.
Stouffville cut the lead to one goal after an unassisted goal by Anthony Lamanna that brought the score to 3-2 and that is how the period would end.
Oakville looked to put this game away and leave the showcase on a high note and what better way to do that than with a win.
Oakville got off to a great start to that plan as Parker Murray scored just over five minutes into the third period assisted by Mason Zebeski and Brenden Bowie giving Oakville a 4-2 lead.
With no quit in the team, Stouffville scored on the powerplay with a goal by Anthony Lamanna to make the game 4-3.
Oakville answered quickly with a goal by Zach Wigle assisted by Josh Kudo and Chase Strychaluck 16 seconds after Stouffville’s goal making the game 5-3.
Michael Tiveron would score an empty-net goal giving Oakville a 6-3 lead and the win, giving Oakville a 1-1 record in their two games at the OJHL Governors Showcase.
After the showcase, Oakville coach Ross Sloan commented on the showcase experience, saying, "Hats off to Couborg and the whole league it’s an unbelievable event each year. A lot of scouts come out and all the kids get to show their talents nationwide. With not being able to play for two years it was unbelievable for all those schools to come and for our players to get that exposure."
Game #3: Oakville Blades vs. Brantford 99ers (Thursday, Oct. 28)
The Blades headed into Brantford after playing two straight games at the OJHL Governors Showcase and were about to play their third straight game.
Fatigue was definitely setting in on the team since the last two games were very hard-fought games Oakville needed to battle through.
Due to the fatigue, Coach Sloan started backup Maxim Shurking to give started Cole DeFazio a day of rest. No scoring occurred in the first half of the first period until Chase Strychaluk scored 11:52 into the first period assisted by Chris Gjoncaj and Andrew Brown to open the scoring.
Oakville extended their lead to 2-0 after a goal by Michael Tiveron on the powerplay assisted by Chase Strychaluk and Evan Pringle.
The two-goal lead was short-lived as Kurt Watson scored for Brampton to make Oakville’s lead 2-1 and Oakville would take that lead into the first intermission.
Matthew Wang restored Oakville’s two-goal lead as Matthew Wang scored assisted by Yanni Kaidonis to make the game 3-1 Blades.
Brantford made the game 3-2 on another goal by Kurt Watson assisted by Lucas Thompson and 18 seconds later Brantford scored on a goal by Zac Betts assisted by Easton Wainright and Adrian Rebelo to tie the game 3-3.
The Blades got the lead back with a shorthanded goal by Chase Strychaluk to make the game 4-3 and the Blades went into intermission with the lead.
The third period saw no scoring from either team and the Blades left Brantford with a gritty victory and Maxim Shurking picked up his first-ever OJHL victory.
Game #4: Oakville Blades vs. Stouffville Spirit (Saturday, Oct. 30)
After a day off on Friday, the Blades played Stouffville after playing them three days prior. This game was the final game of a long week of hockey for the Blades, and the team looked to end the week on a high note.
The first period started great for Oakville as Brenden Bowie scored a goal assisted by Parker Murray giving Oakville a 1-0 lead 5:22 into the first period.
Then Evan Pringle scored for the Blades on the powerplay assisted by Chase Strychaluk and Brenden Bowie making the game 2-0 Oakville.
After the goal, Pringle mimicked throwing a monkey off of his back as he went by the bench since that goal was his first goal in seven games.
Before the end of the period, newly acquired forward James Barbour scored with a great shot from near the top of the slot to give the Blades a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
After the game, Barbour commented about the goal and what he saw on the play saying "I just cut to the middle and didn’t see any other option, I saw that the defence were screening the goalie and I thought I would just rip it across the ice and hope it ent in and thankfully it did."
The second period saw another big period from the blades: Zach Wigle continued his amazing week scoring another goal assisted by Chase Strycharluk and Brenden Bowie making the game 4-0.
Then Brenden Bowie scored unassisted near the end of the period making the game 5-0 and took that lead into intermission.
The third saw no scoring until the last five minutes when Parker Murray scored a goal assisted Mason Zebeski making the game 6-0 and that is how the game would end.
The outpouring of offence overshadowed an amazing achievement by goaltender Cole DeFazio as he captured his first-ever OJHL shutout.
After this week the blades now have an 8-2-0-1 record, which comes to a total of 17 points and third in the west division. We are one point behind the Burlington Cougars and Georgetown Raiders, both tied for first with 18 points.