Lukas Bernasiewicz
All good things must come to an end.
The Oakville Buzz assembled another respectable season and once again could not make it past the first round of the playoffs.
The team lost 11-4 to the Toronto Beaches and their best-of-five series three games to one. This is now the second year in a row that the team has not been able to advance to the second round.
So what went wrong? Heading into this series, this reporter did not like this matchup for Oakville.
Although the Buzz were the higher seed and had the home-field advantage, the Beachet seemed to have their number all season.
In the two regular-season games played between these two teams, Oakville struggled mightily to get their offence going against Toronto.
It seemed like every offensive play that Oakville tried to create was either turned over, blocked by a defender, or stopped by the Beaches' goalie.
The other reason this matchup did not favour the Buzz is that Toronto always gained and never lost momentum. The team would go on these six, seven, and eight-goal runs that would crush all hopes of a Buzz win. Both of those things happened constantly in this series.
In game one, Oakville limited the number of runs that Toronto would get, but the Buzz could not generate enough offence to win the game, allowing Toronto to win 8-6.
In game three, when the score was only 2-2. Toronto went on a long offensive run where they scored eight of the next nine goals and jumped to a 10-3 lead midway through the second period. It made it virtually impossible for Oakville to come back.
Oakville did cut their lead down to 10-8, but penalties turned into Oakville's downfall. Toronto scored two more power play goals and won the game 12-8.
In game four, Toronto started the game with a 7-0 run that essentially won them the game from the beginning, as Oakville could not climb out of the hole they found themselves in.
With this loss, Oakville now looks to off-season as they say goodbye to their senior players.
To all the players moving on, congratulations on great OJLL careers and good luck in your future.
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