After a close 2-1 loss to the North York Rangers, the Blades were looking for a big bounce-back game against the Stouffville Spirit to keep their positive 2023 going.
January 19, 2023: Oakville Blades at Stouffville Spirit
Oakville started their game against Stouffville exactly how they wanted to.
The team played to their strengths, showed off their speed and skill early in the period, and started gaining momentum.
Oakville was granted a powerplay and they capitalized on the opportunity with a missile from the point by Andrew Brown that found the back of the net giving the Blades a 1-0 lead.
Shortly after the Blades opened the scoring, Stouffville answered right back with a goal of their own by Riley Pope to tie the game 1-1.
Oakville then proceeded to kill off multiple Spirit powerplays and near the end of the period the Blades broke on a 3-on-1, Jake Alcaraz found Aidan Taylor with a pass and Taylor shot the puck into the open cage to give Oakville a 2-1 lead headed into the first intermission.
In the second period, the Blades took their foot off the gas and let the Spirit back in the game.
Shortly after the period started, Stouffville took advantage of an Oakville mistake and the Spirit broke on a 2-on-1.
Zachary Benayon sent the puck across to a streaking Zack Corte and Corte beat Gavin McCarthy to tie the game 2-2.
As the period went on, both teams had great chances to break the tie.
Aidan Taylor had the best chance with a shot that went off the crossbar but right after that scoring chance the puck went down the ice and Corte had a breakaway and was hooked giving him a penalty shot.
Corte skated in on McCarthy and shot the puck low blocker side to give the Spirit their first lead of the game.
For the rest of the period, Oakville had so many good chances but just couldn’t finish and the period ended 3-2 Stouffville.
The third period was a great period of hockey.
The period didn't start off great for Oakville as they allowed another Zack Corte early in the period to give him a hattrick and the Spirit a 4-2 lead.
But Oakville would not give up and kept on fighting.
Oakville was given another powerplay and as the man advantage was ending Aidan Taylor found a loose puck and put the puck in the net to bring the Blades within one.
Just 12 seconds later Oakville broke back into the zone and Logan Yovetich tipped in a Gianmarco Caringi pass to tie the game 4-4.
What a great stretch by the Blades and what a great example of how hockey games can change in the blink of an eye.
Though Both teams tried to win the game in regulation, the game went to overtime.
In the first overtime period, both teams exchanged many chances and tried to hold on to as much possession time as possible.
Though both teams had great opportunities, the first overtime period was scoreless so the game went to overtime period 2.
In the second overtime period, Matthew Wang and Jacob Crisp tried to connect on a play in the offensive zone but lost the puck and ended up bumping into each other giving the Spirit a 3-on-1.
The scoring chance looked like it was destined to go into the back of the net but Gavin McCarthy somehow kept the puck out and the puck went down the other way for a breakaway chance by Jacob Crisp but Crisp was stopped.
The puck stayed in the Stouffville zone and Andrew Brown made a beautiful pass back over to Crisp who tapped the puck into the empty net to give the Blades a very crucial 5-4 2OT win.
January 20, 2023: Milton Menace at Oakville Blades
After a huge win the night before, Oakville travelled back home for a game against their division rivals.
Milton has had Oakville’s number this year so the Blades definitely had their work cut out for them.
In the first period, Oakville’s best player on the ice was their goaltender Gavin McCarthy.
McCarthy came up big for the Blades on more than one occasion and kept the team in the game.
McCarthy’s play was rewarded when Matthew Wang stole a puck from the Milton defender and headed up the ice for a breakaway.
Wang dragged the puck to his backhand and sent the puck between the goalie’s legs for a goal to give the Blades a 1-0 lead that they took into the first intermission.
In the second period, Milton continued to pressure the Blades as the Menace totalled over 40 shots after the first two periods.
Milton was finally able to solve Gavin McCarthy when Owen Forester scored to tie the game 1-1 the score stayed that way until the end of the period.
In the final frame, Milton fired shot after shot at McCarthy but they could not get another goal even though they outshot the Blades 60-19 during the entire game.
In the dying seconds of the game, Oakville had just killed off a penalty and Luc Modry sent the puck up the ice and it was corralled by Cole Mckenna as he exited the penalty box.
Mckenna crossed over the blue line and dropped the puck for Matthew Wang and Wang sniped the puck past the Milton goalie to give the Blades a 2-1 lead with 28 seconds left to go in the game.
Oakville killed off the final seconds and won the game.
Oakville now has won consecutive games for the first time in a long time and now look to face Collingwood at home next Tuesday afternoon.