The Oakville Blades "trimmed" the Dryden Ice Dogs this afternoon in a less than exciting game by a score of 5-1. It was the Dudley Hewitt opener and it proved to be a real "yawner" before a very sparse crowd at the RTC in Newmarket.

The Blades didn't even work up a sweat in this one as they manhandled the Dogs from the opening whistle. Other than the captain and goaltender of Dryden, there seemed to be not much else in their lineup that would suggest that the Ice Dogs will be any sort of a threat from here on in. Big gun for the Blades today, as he has been in the playoffs to date, was Nick McParland who turned the "hat trick" and added an assist to lead Oakville to the one sided win. Right behind McParland was speedy Julian Cimadamore who bulged the twine twice and also added an assist. Scott Greenham, although not tested a lot, was again steady between the pipes and the only goal that beat him was a shorthanded breakaway. The Blades looked very strong after their short lay off and once again their depth was very apparent and at times it appeared like they were toying with the Dogs. Next up for the Blades tomorrow afternoon the Sudbury Junior Wolves, I'm sure that the Wolves' "howl" will be a little stronger than the Ice Dog's "whimper" today.

As I mentioned a very sparse crowd on hand, in fact pointstreak did not even show the number in attendance this afternoon. Very sad to say the least, hopefully the crowd tonight will be much better when the host Newmarket Hurricanes meet the Wolves from Sudbury.

who can take time off work to watch a game. also when its this nice out the golf course is a nicer place to be especially after the winter we endured. i will get to a couple of night games .

one has to be a fan.



During the playoffs I would rather be in any arena in Canada(or the US for OHL or NHL), then any golf course on the planet.







Go Raptors !
Go Jays !


WEXDOG
09,11,01
Lest We Forget
11,11,11

"wingfan"

It's easy, it's called retirement, also our golf course does not open until tomorrow. Guess where I will be tomorrow??

Also, if you have a TV at work that you can watch, Rogers (channels 63 & 10) are carrying every game live.

Ice Dogs definitely do not seem to have a lot, but they put in a good fight. They had a great flurry of chances in the 2nd period where Greenham came up big, which might have made this game look a little different, however very likely would have ended the same. Ice Dogs started pushing when they fell down 3-1, which opened the ice up a lot more for the Blades. Blades also had a ton of chances all game, but had trouble zeroing in on the net.

In the early parts of this tourny it looks like Newmarket and Oakville with the edge going to Oakville because of their goaltending and defense.

Toronto Maple Leafs= Ford Motor Company

no fans at the night game either.

Boy, I hope the Canes sold a lot of ticket packages for the Dudley ahead of time, and they have a lot of sponsor money. If today's crowds are any indication of what the rest of the week is going to be, they could take a bath financially as Streetsville did with the RBC in 2006.

I did not see the afternoon game, but I did tune in the the night game.
It was like watching worms racing the 100m dash.
I'm not sure when I saw worse hockey.

And where are the fans in this supposed hockey-mad area?

"vintage guy"

You are so right, Dryden and Sudbury seem to be so outclassed, the whole tempo of the games to date have been reduced to, as you say "like worms racing the 100m dash".

What got me was the Rogers' commentators who kept making excuses saying that Sudbury and Dryden were suffering from the long trip to Newmarket. Gimme a break, last year the Tigers travelled by bus to Iroquois Falls, not exactly a commute, I believe it was around a 10 hour trip all in. It didn't seem to effect them. What's Sudbury 5 hours tops by bus? plus Dryden flew to Toronto. Those guys are beauties.

It doesn't matter what the problem with the two Northern teams is, they are not in the same league with Oakville and Newmarket. Really disappointed in Sudbury, their press clippings obviously were a little exaggerated.

Hopefully they will both improve from here on and make a series out of it.

so is it fair to say it should be an newmarket vs oakville final! my money would be on oakville, due to newmarket being off for so long i think it could hurt their chances! and i think oakville is just better team! however if it does come down to a one game final i guess anything can happen and newmarket has a few games before the potential finals to clean the rust off!

I for one, was surprised at how well the Canes played last night after their long layoff. Even though the Wolves were not at their best, I hope, the Canes still showed enough to make a statement that they will be a force to contend with. Unless the world comes to an end, it should be Newmarket and Oakville in the final. Last week I would have bet on the Blades to take it all no problem, now I'm not 100% sure, Newmarket could just surprise everyone.

It should be a great final, let's hope the fans?? think so to and get out to see it.

I was Mapquesting the distances that Dryden has to travel for their games and I think the shortest distance was 3 hours. I don't think travel distance is an excuse for the boys up north. Sudbury also has to travel about 5 hours for 2 of the 4 teams in their league.

Toronto Maple Leafs= Ford Motor Company