Oakville Blades

Oakville Blades
City	Oakville, Ontario, Canada
League	Ontario Junior Hockey League
Founded	1966
Home arena	Sixteen Mile Sports Complex (1,500)
Colours	Blue, Red, and White
General manager	Mike Daley
Head coach	Mike Tarantino
Affiliates	Oakville Rangers (OMHA)

The Oakville Blades are a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Oakville, Ontario, Canada. They are a part of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

History

The Blades started as a Junior C team, and made it to the Clarence Schmalz Cup Final once to compete for the All-Ontario Junior "C" title. In 1969, the Blades lost 4-games-to-3 to the Woodstock Navy-Vets. Oakville moved up to the Junior B level for the 1970-71 season, and joined the Mid-Ontario Junior B league. In 1971, the leagues realigned, and Oakville moved to the new Central Junior B league. In 1975 and 1991 the Blades made it the Sutherland Cup Final for the All-Ontario Junior "B" title. The first time, they were defeated by the Metro Junior B Hockey League's Bramalea Blues 4-games-to-3. The second time, they were defeated by the Midwestern Junior B Hockey League's Waterloo Siskins 4-games-to-0.

2007-08 season

The Blades had a great 2007-08 regular season. With 39 wins, 6 losses, and 4 overtime losses, the Blades finished first overall in the West Division. After a bye in the division quarter-final, the Blades defeated the Milton Icehawks 4-games-to-1 in the division semi-final and Georgetown Raiders 4-games-to-1 to win the West Division playoff title. In the North/West Conference championship, the Blades took on the defending Royal Bank Cup 2007 champion Aurora Tigers. The Tigers appeared dominant, but faltered late in the series to lose to the Blades 4-games-to-2. In the OPJHL Buckland Cup final, Blades dominated the Markham Waxers and won 4-games-to-1 to win their first ever Junior A league championship.

The Blades then moved on to the Dudley Hewitt Cup, the Central Canadian championship. In game 1, the Blades defeated the Thunder Bay Region champion Dryden Ice Dogs 5-1. The then defeated the Northern Ontario champion Sudbury Jr. Wolves 5-3. In the final game of the round robin, they defeated the host Newmarket Hurricanes 5-2. This gave the Blades a bye to the final where they played the Hurricanes again and beat them 6-3. This earned them a berth into the 2008 Royal Bank Cup.

The 2008 campaign got rocky when the Blades shipped off to Cornwall, Ontario for the Royal Bank Cup. Star goaltender Scott Greenham could not attend the tournament despite leading the Blades to the OPJHL and Central Canadian Championships. Having accepted a scholarship to play for the Alaska Nanooks,^[1] he would lose his NCAA eligibility if he played in the Royal Bank Cup because his age (21).^[2] With this, the Blades had to bring their back-up cold off the bench for the National Championship. In the first game of the tournament, Oakville had to play the host Cornwall Colts of the Central Junior A Hockey League. Despite outshooting them, the Blades were shocked by the Colts 5-4. The next night, the Blades drew the Weeks Crushers of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League. The Blades badly outshot the Crushers, but the Crushers managed to squeak out a 4-3 overtime victory of the Central Canadian champions. In a nail-biting and high scoring outing, the Blades gave Humboldt a 7-6 loss to keep contention for a playoff spot in the tournament. It was not to be though, as the Blades out-shot but still lost to the top ranked Camrose Kodiaks 6-1.

Despite outshooting all four of their opponents, the Oakville Blades lost three out of four games and were eliminated on a head-to-head tie breaker with Weeks.

Season-by-season results

Sutherland Cup appearances

1975: Bramalea Blues defeated Oakville Blades 4-games-to-3

1991: Waterloo Siskins defeated Oakville Blades 4-games-to-none

Clarence Schmalz Cup appearances

1969: Woodstock Navy-Vets defeated Oakville Blades 4-games-to-3

References

External links

• Blades Webpage