The Oakville Blades finished off a spectacular undefeated weekend with a shutout against the Lindsay Muskies, skating away with the 7-0 victory on Saturday.
The Blades got off to an explosive start, scoring two goals on the first five shots of the contest. First, Kyle Potts attempted to score right in front of the net, but the puck was turned away by Lindsay netminder Brett Chandler. However, Ryan Burns was able to find the puck behind the net and scored on a wrap-around, grabbing a 1-0 lead in the process.
With four minutes off the clock, the Blades held a two goal lead. This time it would be Josh Kosack, who scored from a terrible angle in the corner, after similar failed attempt by Jackson Bales.
The first half of the game was controlled by the home team. Before Lindsay took their first shot of the period, the Blades had 13 shots to their credit, pouring on the pressure against Chandler early on. With four minutes to go, Burns secured his second goal of the period. He took the puck from Potts as he skated down the wing before roofing a fantastic wrist shot past Chandler. It made it 3-0 as the teams headed into the intermission.
The Blades continued to lay down the shots in the second, leading 23-5 by the halfway point in the game. The best opportunities to score came from Bales, who came so close on two separate chances as the period progressed. With 7:54 on the clock, Bales stole the puck from a slow moving Muskies defender and skated in on the right wing. Unfortunately, he was only able to hit two posts without the puck crossing over the goal line. A minute later, Bales had another great chance to throw one past Chandler. He picked off a rebound, but the Muskies goaltender got over just in time to deflect the puck out of danger with the back of his pants.
With just over four minutes to go in the second, the Blades would extend their lead to four. This time, it would be Brandon Hughes, who found the rebound in the slot following an original shot from OHL Draft prospect Zach Gallant. He buried it home, giving the Oakville Blades the 4-0 lead.
With 1:45 off the clock in the third, Christian Rajic scored a highlight real goal making it 5-0 Oakville. After receiving the puck from the wing from Kamil Tkaczuk, Rajic went in alone against Chandler, deking the goaltender with a quick sidestep in front of the net.
Frustrations had begun to set in with 16:10 to go in the contest. Things were clearly not going Lindsay’s way throughout the battle. After a bit of jarring back and forth, Muskie's John MacDonald dropped his mitts with Oakville’s Vince Palermo. When it was done, the crowd seemed to think Blades' captain got the better end of the deal, hitting Macdonald with a couple of quick high ones taking MacDonald down.
A few minutes later, it was Brandon Hughes’ turn to go at it. Compared to Palermo, Hughes isn’t exactly considered a fighter, but he definitely held his own when sparring with Mackenzie Heber of the Muskies. Just for good measure, Greg Campbell went at it with Brock Spear, giving the fans three fights just minutes apart.
With 3:25, and the game officially out of hand, Max Lindsay scored on the team bearing his last name to make it 7-0. Josh Kosack had been playing strong all night. His best moment of the night came when he saucered the puck to Lindsay, who sniped the puck past Chandler for the seventh Blades goal of the night. The goal proved to be the final one in the big time blowout, as the Blades skated to a 7-0 lead to keep their second spot in the South Division alive.