After a lengthy off-season, the Oakville Buzz have finally returned for the 2023 OJLL season.
Oakville looks to have a bounce-back season after a crushing playoff loss to the Orangeville Northman last season, where the Buzz lost their best-of-five series three games to two after going up 2-0 in the series.
Oakville began their quest with a game against the Six Nations Arrows.
May 17, 2023. Six Nations Arrows @ Oakville Buzz
Oakville began its season with a home game against Six Nations and a chance to set the tone for what is to come from their squad.
The Buzz opened the scoring four minutes into the game with a goal by Lucas Hucal to give the Buzz a 1-0 lead and their first goal of the season.
The Arrows answered back towards the end of the period with a goal by Oneniotekowa Maracle to tie the game 1-1.
The second period saw a takeover from the Buzz.
Oakville scored three unanswered goals by Jake Dawick, Xander Derkatz, and Luke Dawick to give the team a 4-1 lead heading into the third period.
At the start of the third period, Xander Derkatz scored his second of the game, extending Oakville’s lead to 5-1.
Six Nations scored shortly after to cut the lead to 5-2; then the Arrows scored again with four minutes left to cut the deficit to two.
But, with 11 seconds left in the game, Xander Derkatz scored into an empty net to give him a hat trick and Oakville’s first win of the season.
May 20, 2023. Brampton Excelsiors @ Oakville Buzz
Oakville looked to continue their winning ways in their second game of the season against Brampton.
The Buzz got off to a hot start with a goal by Jack Macalpine just under four minutes into the game, giving Oakville an early 1-0 lead.
Both teams played a solid defensive game throughout the period ending the frame at a 1-0 score.
The second period saw the game open up.
Oakville scored two quick goals at the start to extend their lead to 3-0.
But Brampton struck back with three unanswered goals to tie the game with 11:25 left in the period.
Oakville took the lead back with a goal by Xander Derkatz, but Brampton answered back a little over 30 seconds later to tie the game 4-4.
Luckily for Oakville, Chris Dong came to the rescue with his first goal of the season to give the Buzz a 5-4 lead that the team took into the second intermission.
Brampton answered again in the third period with a goal of their own to tie the game 5-5, but after that, Oakville took over.
The Buzz scored three unanswered goals by Will Sheehan, Jake Dawick, and another by Xander Derkatz to give Oakville a commanding 8-5 lead.
Brampton added another goal, but that was as close as they would get, and the Buzz took this game by a score of 8-6.
A strong start from a team that has much bigger aspirations this season.
“It’s a great start,” said veteran Luke Dawick. “We are still getting pieces back from school right now, but we have that next-man-up mentality, and we are going to keep working hard.”
This quotes exemplifies what a great team the Buzz are in right now.
The team just started their season 2-0, and they aren’t even at full strength yet.
Oakville still has some players still finishing off their university/college years down south; once those players finish, the Buzz will have all of their top players and contributors and will be a force to be reckoned with when they are at full strength.
But for now, Oakville is undefeated, with a road game against Whitby on Tuesday and reinforcements on the way.