The Whitby Fury traveled to Oakville on Friday night to take on the Blades for their first meeting of the season. Last year, Oakville unfortunately was unable to grab a victory against the Fury, but hopes were high this time around after the acquisitions of some new players. However, in a game where neither team could get a cushion, the Fury escaped with a 5-3 victory over the Blades after the latter managed to rack up 24 minutes in penalties in a rough and tumble match-up.
The game got off to a fast and furious pace. The best scoring chance came just a minute into the contest, as Whitby’s Mitch Emerson managed to steal a loose puck from in front of the crease and come in. However, his nifty one handed scoring opportunity was no match for goaltender Brendan McGlynn, who was able to stretch out his left pad and kick the puck away before it became too much of a danger. Whitby was, however, able to score the game’s first goal, as some nice passing between Luke Keenan and Scott Kirton saw the latter pot a marker on an open cage.
Despite a couple of good scoring chances by Whitby in the second, Oakville had the first really good opportunity to open the scoring in the second. With a fantastic loose puck scoring chance early in the period, Matt McLeod’s great wrist shot from the right faceoff dot was stopped by Whitby’s sprawling goaltender, Tyler Feaver. Feaver looked impressive through the first half of the game, making a couple of tremendous saves to keep his team in the lead. However, it would be the 12 minute mark of the second that saw Oakville finally tie it up. With the momentum fully in Oakville’s side, Ross Sloan took one of the hardest shots you’ll ever see in the entire league to tie the game up at one apiece. McLeod had a good chance to take over the lead with five minutes remaining in the period, but his breakaway opportunity was stopped at the last second by Feaver.
Whitby was able to finish the period with the lead. With three minutes remaining in the middle frame, 18 year old Mitchell Burghardt got just his second career goal, and an important one at that.
A poor goal call would cost the Blades with 14 minutes to go in the period. Despite McGlynn getting interfered with in his own crease, Jonathan O’Hara waited a long enough time with the puck before roofing it top shelf. The Blades would argue their case on the play, but the frustrated squad in blue, red and white wouldn’t be able to overturn anything on the play.
Despite some anger on the Blades bench, the club was able to finally get their second goal of the game. Once again, a beautiful shot by Sloan found its way into the back of the net to make it 3-2 Whitby. Tanner Shaw would get his first goal as a Blade on the play, just hours after his trade from Pickering became official. Their momentum would be quickly turned the other way with about nine minutes to go when a power-play goal by Jeremy Wu found its way past McGlynn.
The back and forth game continued. Not too long after Oakville’s Brandon Hughes got his team within one, Henry Thompson scored a power-play marker for Whitby to give the bad guys the two goal lead. The goal didn’t go without an incredible effort by the Oakville goaltender, as McGlynn made an incredible sprawling pad save. Whitby’s fifth goal would be the final one, as a penalty filled third wouldn't lead to any more goals in the Fury’s eventual 5-3 victory.