Lukas Bernasiewicz
On a rare Tuesday night game, the Blades looked to continue their winning ways against one of the top teams in the OJHL, the Milton Menace.
Before the game, the Blades made an official announcement for their leadership group and also added some more detail.
Though Jake Alcaraz wore the captaincy in the last few home games, he will be splitting the "C" with defender Andrew Brown who will wear the captaincy when the Blades wear their white jerseys.
Oakville looked to get a big win against their Halton rivals and hoped to get back in the playoff race.
The Blades opened the game on fire, playing probably their best period of hockey that they had all season.
Their great play was rewarded early when Aidan Russel forced a turnover and broke into the Milton zone and beat one defender, and then beat the goaltender to give Oakville the early and surprising 1-0 lead.
Shortly after Oakville opened up the scoring, Milton tied the game with a shot by Ivan Fabjan that deflected off of Joseph Meleca to make the score 1-1.
Near the end of the period, Milton broke into the zone on a seemingly nothing play.
Milton’s Travis Houle shot the puck near the point, and it somehow found its way past the Oakville goalie, definitely a shot that he would want back.
Luckily the Blades answered back very shortly after; Oakville broke into the zone and crashed the net after Blades forward Matthew Wang took a shot.
Wang’s shot didn’t go in, but the rebound bounced around and landed on the stick of Marco Costante. He made no mistake tying the game up 2-2 near the end of the first period.
The second period is where the Menace started to take a big lead. Near the halfway mark of the second period, Milton broke out on a 3-on-2.
The Menace converted on a tic-tac-toe play, with Myles Perry finishing it off to give Milton a 3-2 lead.
Around two minutes later, Milton extended their lead to 4-2 after Dylan McFadden one-timed a puck from the point that somehow beat Oakville’s Sam Edmands, definitely another goal that he would want back.
After letting that goal in, Edmands was pulled for Gavin McCarthy.
About three minutes later, Menace forward Aiden Hughes sent a beautiful pass to Lucas Buzoil. He made no mistake, making the game 5-2 and that goal was the last goal of the period.
In the third period, the Blades tried to come back. Just 1:28 into the frame, Matthew Wang broke down the left wing and sniped a shot over the shoulder of the Milton goalie to bring the Blades within two.
Unfortunately, the Menace scored two straight goals by Aiden Hughes and Justin O’Donnell to make the score 7-3 Milton.
Oakville didn’t give up, though; Lachlan Wells broke into the zone and didn’t quit on the puck; he dove to get the puck on the net, and the rebound came right to Aidan Russel, who scored to make the game 7-4.
Shortly after that goal, the Blades couldn’t convert on a powerplay, but after the man advantage, Oakville broke into the zone again, Matthew Wang sent a pass to Aidan Taylor. Taylor sent a great pass to Jack Churchill who scored to bring Oakville within two.
Sadly Oakville couldn’t get another goal on Milton and lost this game by a score of 7-5.
Blades defenseman Marco Costante spoke on how Oakville can limit the number of goals being scored against them, saying, "We need to clear bodies out in front of the net; from those seven goals, the goalie couldn’t see the puck."
Though it was a loss, the Blades showed no quit and kept moving forward and were able to make this game closer than it should’ve been.
This game was definitely a game that you can build off of for their next game against Brantford at home on Friday which will also be their annual Teddy Bear toss game.
