The Oakville Buzz lacrosse team have won their first two games of a brutal four-game schedule this week. Their recent two wins mean they are now on a three-game win streak.
The Buzz continue their hard schedule with a game against Brampton on the road tomorrow, Friday, May 27, and a game at home Toronto at home this Saturday, May 28.
Here's our recap of the first two games this week:
May 23, 2022: Oakville Buzz at Burlington Cheifs
After an excellent performance in their last game against Six Nations, the Buzz travelled down the highway to Burlington for a match against the Chiefs.
The game started off close and very tightly played. The Buzz were the first team to get on the board with a goal by Luke Dawick to make the game 1-0.
Then about three minutes later the Chiefs scored two goals by Greg Elijah-Brown and Alexander Marinier to make the game 2-1 Burlington.
Shortly after that goal, the Buzz tied the game with a Will Sheehan goal making the game 2-2. The Chiefs answered back with two big goals by Greg Elijah-Brown and Jacob Power to make the game 4-2.
Oakville answered back with a power play goal by Brian Jackman to bring the score to 4-3 Chiefs, but the Chiefs got another goal back on the penalty kill to make the game 5-3 at the end of the first period.
Less than two minutes into the second, Burlington scored again with a goal by Jacob Power to make the game 6-3.
After that goal, the Buzz answered back. It started with a big goal by Zach Coulman to make the game 6-4. Then Will Sheehan scored again on the power play to make the game 6-5, but after that goal, the game took a turn.
Oakville’s Amos Whitcomb went to go grab a loose ball and was hit from behind by Burlington’s Nicholas Volkov and Whitcomb hit the boards hard and could not get up on his own power.
After help from the trainers from both teams. Whitcomb was helped to the bench by his teammates and eventually went to the locker room and did not return.
(As of right now, we are not sure what the injury is, however, after the game Whitcomb was seen with an ice pack near his clavicle.)
After the dust settled, Nicholas Volkov was given a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for his hit. On the five-minute power play, the Buzz went to work.
Zach Coulam scored another goal to tie the game 6-6, then Michael Jackman scored on the same powerplay to give the Buzz the 7-6 lead.
Shortly after that, Burlington tied the game with a goal by Alexander Marinier to make the game 7-7.
Luckily for the Buzz, Eric McDonald scored around thirty seconds later to give Oakville the 8-7 lead that they would hold until the end of the second period.
At the start of the third period, the Buzz killed off a 5 on 3 but with less than ten minutes left in the period, they took another penalty and allowed a power play goal by Jacob Power to make the game 8-8.
Just under a minute later, Michael Jackman scored again for the Buzz and over three minutes later, Jake Wright scored for Oakville making the game 10-8 with 3:26 left in the game.
The Buzz did allow another goal by Alexander Marinier with 1:28 left in the game to make the score 10-9.
But the Buzz fought through adversity and killed the clock to edge out a gritty 10-9 victory against the Chiefs.
After the game, Luke Dawick commented on the penalty kill and goaltender Aden Walsh’s performance saying, "Aden was awesome tonight. The most important part of your team is always your back end and your defence, defence wins championships and with Welsh playing like that, it’s going to be hard to beat our team."
May 25, 2022: Orangeville Northmen at Oakville Buzz
After a gritty win against the Burlington Chiefs, the Buzz travelled back home to the TRAC for a game against the Orangeville Northmen.
With this being their second of four games this week, another win would be a huge confidence booster for the team.
The game started off great for the Buzz as Luke Dawick scored the first goal of the game on the power play to give the team an early 1-0 lead.
Orangeville tied the game with a goal by Cody Coulson to make the game 1-1.
After Orangeville scored, Oakville added two more goals by Jake Dawick and Will Sheehan to make the game 3-1 Oakville at the end of the first period.
At the beginning of the first period, Orangeville found themselves on the power play and Liam Matthews scored for the Northmen making the game 3-2.
After that goal, the Buzz answered back with three goals of their own by Will Sheehan, Jonathan Galiardi, and Tanner Cole to make the score 6-2 for the Buzz.
However, before the end of the second period, Cohen Jennings scored for Orangeville to make the score 6-3 at the end of the second period.
At the beginning of the third period, the Buzz got on the board again with a goal by Brian Jackman to make the score 7-3 for the Buzz. Orangeville added two more goals but could not mount a comeback and beat the Buzz.
The game ended with a final score of 7-5 for Oakville. The Buzz now improve their record to 3-1-0.