OAKVILLE, Ontario — The Oakville Blades are off to a fantastic start after winning back-to-back games in their first regular-season games of the 2021-22 season. The Blades are now one of five Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) teams ranked in the Top 20.

This past Sunday, the Blades faced the Burlington Cougars and Markham Royals on the road. Oakville fans were excited to see the puck drop for the start of the 2021-22 OJHL season.

Against the Cougars, the Blades played a tight game and threw big hits against their opponent. While Burlington controlled the first half with a 1-0 lead, courtesy of a well-timed shot by right wing Matthew Zebedee, the Blades came back with a strong response in the second half, with goaltender Cole DeFazio doing an excellent job keeping the puck away from the net and Oakville captain Brandan Bowie tying the game with a passed shot.

Towards the end of the second period, an open Matthew Franzoi scored a shot against Cole to give Burlington a 2-1 lead.

During the third period, goalie Cole DeFazio again did a great job defending the puck and Cole Weinger would go on to tie the game for the Blades after making a challenging shot at an unconventional angle. During OT, goalie Cole would again do an excellent job at defending the puck and the game-winning shot would go to right wing Parker Murray.

When asked what his strategy for battling through the close game was, DeFazio said, “You can never give up. I knew the boys would get the puck out for me.”

It was a less intense game against the Royals, whom the Blades faced later that day. Cole Weinger started off offensive efforts for the Blades with a goal and assist. Andrew Brown, Evan Pringle and Zach Wigle added to the goal list by scoring for Oakville.

Prior to the games, the Blades won both of their pre-season games against the Mississauga Chargers. It was the first time in 18 months that the Blades played a home game at Sixteen-Mile Creek Arena.

It is an exciting moment for both Blades players and fans, who saw the 2020-21 season be canceled due to the pandemic. The season gave members of the team an opportunity to scout for some new talent. A club member during the canceled season commented, “We will have the opportunity to look at some new talent for the future because we are losing guys to graduation and Division I programs.”

During the downtime, players continued to work out at home and kept active by rollerblading outside.

The young team has a history of wins under their belt, scoring a franchise best .861 regular season win percentage and winning the Buckland & Dudley Hewitt cups in the post season back in 2019. The team ultimately reached semi-finals in the National Junior Championship that year.

The Blades initially started as a Junior C Team, making it to the Clarence Schmalz Cup Final to compete for the Ontario Junior “C” title. The team moved up to the Junior B league for the 1970-71 season. The team saw some success through the decades, as it consistently ranked top 5 in the league. The team moved to Junior “A” status in the 2008-2009 season, following a stellar 2007-2008 regular season. They won the West Division playoff title that year after defeating the Georgetown Raiders 4-games-to-1. Following victories against the Aurora Tigers and Markham Waxers, the team secured their first Junior A League championship. The Blades would then go on to win the Dudley Hewitt Cup and place fifth in the Royal Bank Cup.

This season follows a year of adjustments and roster changes for the Blades. There are a total of 19 new players, of which 16 are rookies. Head coach Ross Sloan is confident in his roster, commenting, “We have a young team, lot of rookies…but we have confidence in every single one of our players no matter the age so I’m just excited to keep going.”

With regard to the pandemic season, Sloan commented, “You don’t normally get that- a full year of no games, yes it sucks, but a lot of those kids worked on their game for the complete year.” He has faith in his team winning the championship, adding, “Every year you build a team and you want to compete for a championship and the team we have here is good enough to win one.. we are just going to take it one game at a time.”

If these early season victories are any indicators, the Blades have a successful year ahead of them.

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