OAKVILLE, ON- The Brantford 99ers looked to turn things around on Friday night after a disappointing 3-2 loss to the Caledon Admirals the night prior. Despite dominating in all aspects on Thursday, the score didn’t go in their favour and the team looked to turn it around against the Blades. Aiden Berry got the start in between the pipes for the 99ers, and Norwegian netminder Mikkel Christensen started for Oakville.
Brantford’s Taye Ladislao opened up the games scoring after a magnificent play at the blue line, the puck dribbled back to Hudson Gill at the point. Gill fired the puck on net and Ladislao cleaned up the rebound for his 2nd goal of the season. The Blades responded quickly however with a dominant offensive zone shift, the tired 99ers couldn’t get off the ice and a shot from the point was redirected by Max Donohoe for his 5th of the season, knotting the game at 1.
7 minutes into the 2nd period, Oakville’s Gleb Akimov was sprung with a breakaway pass. Despite Cole Smith’s attempt to muscle him off the puck, Akimov made a nifty move cutting the the left and chipping the puck over the glove of a sliding Aiden Berry to give the Blades their 1st lead of the night. The 99ers refused to quit and continued to apply heavy pressure on the Blades. At the 13:10 mark, Garrett McCabe cleaned up a rebound in front of the net to tie the game at 2, notching his 6th goal of the campaign. The period ended with a 2-2 tie.
Battle after battle and shift after shift, neither team was willing to give up a trailing goal. Both teams successfully killed off 2 penalties each in the final frame, until the 6:50 mark when Jacob Crisp received a game misconduct for ripping the cage off of Jack Pancoe’s helmet, giving the 99ers their 3rd power play of the period. Evin Kojokaro was the hero as he wired an old fashioned slap shot past the glove of Christensen for his team leading 16th goal of the season regaining the 99ers lead. The Oakville Blades pulled their goalie with 90 seconds to play and applied heavy pressure in the offensive zone, but Aiden Berry sealed the net shut and Brantford stole 2 points from the Blades. Taye Ladislao earned player of the game honours for Brantford.
Watch all goals scored by the 99ers here!
The 99ers are back in action on Sunday, November 19th at home for Tyke Hockey Sunday hosting the Brantford Minor Hockey U7 Jets for an intermission scrimmage, and facing off against the Mississauga Chargers. The puck drops at 3:00pm and is live on http://flohockey.tv.
