(Oakville, ON) – The Buffalo Junior Sabres denied the Oakville Blades the satisfaction of a playoff round sweep last weekend, but the Blades ended this Ontario Junior Hockey League series with an exclamation point, routing the Jr. Sabres 9-0 in the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex and winning the best-of-seven series in five games.
Liam Board opened the scoring with a power play goal in the first period that proved to be the game winner. Kyle Blaney scored four goals, while Brandon Denham, Martin Kudla, Tye Campbell and Nathan Grannito completed the scoring with single goals.
Buffalo was outshot 37 to 18 in this contest. Jr. Sabres goaltender Parker Gahagen made 28 saves. James Prigione recorded the shutout in front of the Oakville net.
The Blades will face the Georgetown Raiders for the OJHL West Division final. The Raiders, like the Blades, enjoyed a first-round bye and won their second round series in five games, in this case over Burlington.
The Jr. Sabres, meanwhile, can look back on this season with satisfaction having made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons and winning its first round, sweeping Hamilton three games to none. The Jr. Sabres also secured three NCAA Division-I commitments: Josh Kielich (Canisus), Andrew Poturalski (University of New Hampshire) and David Seward (Princeton) have committed to their respective schools beginning in 2013. In addition, Dennis Playfair will enroll at SUNY Geneseo this coming fall. Other players have not yet announced their commitments.
With the close of the 2011-2012 season, Michael Peca becomes the new head coach and will look forward to tryouts, the dates for which will be announced at a later date.
