After another tough loss at the hands of the Pickering Panthers, the Blades got a week's break before they faced their BurlOak rivals in their Pink in the Rink game in order to support the Wellspring Birmingham Gilgan House in Oakville.
The arena was packed with fans and it was a tremendous spectacle to see for fans and skaters.
The game started off all Burlington as the Cougars controlled possession for the majority of the first period. There were portions of the period where Oakville struggled to even get a shot on goal.
So naturally, Burlington scored the first goal of the game.
Burlington received the puck at the point and sent a shot in behind the net, Joel Chauvin sent the puck out front to Jax Bellwood who finished off the play and gave the Cougars the early 1-0 lead.
Oakville tried their hardest to keep the game tied heading into intermission but could not hold the fort as Crossley Stewart found a loose puck and brought it into the slot and sniped the puck high on Oakville Goalie Gavin McCarthy to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead before the end of the period.
Near the start of the second period, Oakville got back in the game and made the score 2-1. Jacob Crisp tipped in a Conor Thacker point shot in the slot to bring the Blades within one. Burlington took the lead back midway through the second period with a goal by Thomas Lenart.
The goal came right off of a face-off after Eric Bertelsen got possession off the draw and sent a pass to a wide of Lenart who made no mistake giving the Cougars a 3-1 lead.
After the Cougars made the game 3-1, both teams brought the intensity up to 11.
Both teams began throwing hits and getting physical, some players were given 10-minute misconducts for hitting, many players got boarding penalties, and both Josh Kudo and Jacob Bramwell were ejected for fighting.
And finally, to top it all off, Aidan Taylor was also ejected for goaltender interference with one second left in the period. After the dust settled, Burlington left the period with a 3-1 lead.
At the start of the third period, Burlington took advantage of a powerplay and Joel Chauvin found a wide open Conner Thomson-Dick for a chance and scored making the game 4-1 Cougars.
Even though they were down three goals, the Blades showed no quit and tried to get back in the game.
With over eight minutes left in the game, Andrew Brown fired a shot from the point and the rebound came right out to Shawn Valere who pounced on the loose puck and scored to make the game 4-2.
The Blades tried to get another goal but the clock kept on ticking and time was not on their side.
With less than a minute left, the Blades pulled the goalie for an extra skater. With 35 seconds left, Andrew Brown dashed down the ice and fired a shot passed the Burlington keeper.
Though it was a valiant effort, the Blades comeback came up short and they dropped this game 4-3 losing their sixth game in a row.
After the loss, coach Scott McCrory commented on the fight in his team saying "were extremely proud of them," (the team) "The effort and the determination, we had some not so favourable calls go against us but we kept battling right down to the last seven seconds when we missed the net, if it hits the net, it might go in."
Oakville’s next set of games will be a three in three on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Thursday will be an away game in Stouffville, Friday will be a home game against Haliburton, and Saturday will be an away game against Georgetown.