NEWS

Nick Giunta of the Markham Royals, Jason Pineo of the Oakville Blades and teammates get tangled up during the Blades 5-2 win in Oakville Wednesday. The Blades lead the best-of-seven OJHL North/West Conference final 3-1. (Photo by Dave Fryer/OJHL Images)

By Ron Valentine

Oakville Blades' forward Harrison Israels summed up Game 3 of their Ontario Junior Hockey League North/West final with the Markham Royals well. “We came to play tonight (Tuesday). If you look at our lineup every single line was buzzing and that definitely showed on the scoresheet. We are looking to keep the momentum going as we move forward.” In their 13 playoff contests to date, Oakville has scored 55 goals, for an average of just over four per game, while allowing an average of 1.77 against.

Markham Head Coach Mike Galati and his staff will be working on regrouping with his squad as they still have two more chances to steal a win this week at Sixteen Mile in Oakville. His team is no strangers to adversity, however, having overcome a three-game deficit in Round 2 of the postseason to take the last four games against Newmarket.

Game 4 of the North/West final in Oakville saw the home side take one step closer to the Buckland Cup Final with a 5-2 win over the Royals. With blueliner Callum Jones out of the lineup due to a suspension, the Blades inserted Tanner Brennecke who captained his hometown Hamilton Kilty Bees Jr. B team in the GOJHL. He had 53 points for the Bees in 47 regular season games. For Markham, Christos Rodis was back in the lineup. 

It was a quiet opening period with not a lot of chances either way and it looked like it would be scoreless. Until Luca Esposito got the visitors ahead as his attempted pass across from the left side hit the skate of a Blade defender, came straight back to him and he one-timed the puck past Will Barber.

Early in the second period, Blades' forward Jason Pineo fell awkwardly, crashed heavily into the boards and had to be helped off the ice in obvious discomfort. He would not return but fortunately did not sustain a major injury. It would not take the Blades too long after that to tie things up as Kyle Potts completed a nifty close in tic-tac-toe passing play for his seventh goal of the season. Peyton Reeves' one-timer got under the glove of Andrew Albano to give Oakville the 2-1 lead after two. 

Thomas Maia sifted his way through the Royals' defense and slid home a backhand to give the Blades the 3-1 advantage early in the third. Spencer Kersten redirected a pass on the doorstep and it was a three-goal lead for the West Division champions. With just under three minutes left in the period, Matt Couto blasted home a shot from the right wing and it's 4-2 and time to remove Albano. The Royals had the 'big boppers' – Alessio Luciani, Braedyn Aubin, Zack Sirota, Nick Davis and lone defender Devyn Mayea – on the ice for an extended shift and they would come very close but could not get another. Kersten's empty netter made it a 5-2 scoreline at the finish.

Kyle Lewis and Harrison Israels both had two assists for the Blades. Almost 700 on hand to watch including a good Markham contingent. Game 5 is back in Oakville Friday night.

The Wellington Dukes can wrap up the South/East championship with a win in North York Thursday. They lead 3-1. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

For the complete OJHL playoff schedule and conference brackets click here

Follow Ron Valentine on Twitter @ronandlynda