2008 Oakville Rangers get revenge vs North York Rangers in OHL Cup Semi-Finals

Background Story: With revenge being the theme here, let's take you back to U15: Oakville would beat North York in the Finals of the Toronto Red Wings Early Bird Tournament, in a thriller of a game where Oakville would take a 4-1 lead, see it disappear in the 3rd period, and eventually battle the momentum swing to win 5-4 in OT. I'm sure North York had not forgotten that when they met 1 year later in the next Early Bird Tournament.

In the U16 Toronto Titans Early Bird Tournament, Oakville would eliminate Vaughan 5-4 in OT in the quarter finals, and meet North York in the semi-finals, for what I would like to think everybody would call a very controversial game.

While both teams are called the Rangers, they share the same colour scheme, with very similar logos and jerseys, which proved to be too confusing for the referees. In video clip #1, you'll see Oakville's Armstrong (blue) finish his check on North York's player (white) right before the icing call. Fast forward 10 seconds to the corresponding offensive zone face-off, where Oakville will win the draw back to Armstrong, he'll walk to the middle, and get met with a very high hit to his head from that same NYR player who was seeking some revenge. The refs hand would go up, Oakville would continue to have the puck during the delayed penalty, and eventually the whistle would go for a PP. Only one issue: the PP went to North York. In the 4-referee system, not one set of eyes could figure out that the white jersey delivered the hit to the head, and instead, they blue jersey would be given a 4-minute head checking penalty. Oakville would kill off the first half, but unfortunately give up a PP goal on the second half of the PP to be down 1-0 in the first 5 minutes of the game.

As the game went on, things would continue to go in favour of North York. In video clip #2, in the 2nd period, U14 & U15 OMHA top scorer, Ryder Carey of Oakville, would wheel around his net with the puck, only to have North York's player (the same player involved in the previous incident) stick out his knee, causing Ryder to flip over, and remain on the ice injured. While a kneeing penalty is a 4-minute double minor, and often a contact penalty resulting in an injury where the trainer comes on the ice can result in a 5-minute major - there was no call made on the play.

While losing to the refs, Oakville would also be losing to North York, trailing 3-1 heading into the 3rd period. Overcoming adversity, Oakville would claw their way back, scoring twice to tie the game at 3-3, and then with 5 minutes left in the game, they took the lead... or did they? In clip #3, Oakville player would battle in the corner and fall with the NYR player - the NYR player would stay down, but the play would continue due to Oakville's puck possession - Oakville would get the puck to the point, get a shot on net and score. While neither ref had their hand raised for a call nor blew the whistle, they would call the goal back and instead give Oakville a 4-minute head contact penalty on the play. Instead of Oakville going up 4-3, the game would stay tied 3-3, and North York would score the eventual game-winner on the subsequent PP from that call.

U16 OHL Cup Semi-Finals: With revenge on their minds, Oakville set out for their OHL Cup semi-final rematch against NYR. In the first 2-3 minutes, North York was the better team, forcing Saldanha to make multiple saves to keep Oakville at 0-0. Then, with a perfectly executed defensive zone faceoff, Oakville's set play resulted in a breakaway goal for their 1st shot on net and an early 1-0 lead. That seemed to get the Rangers going, as before we knew it, they scored twice more to take a 3-0 lead. Late in the first, NYR would score, but Oakville responded in the 2nd period to restore their 3-goal lead. Familiar with a 4-1 lead vs NYR the year prior, Oakville knew the game was far from over. North York would score to cut the lead to 2, but again Oakville would respond to restore their 3-goal lead. In the 3rd period, things got interesting - NYR would score twice, getting the game to 5-4. Oakville would respond with an insurance goal to make it 6-4, and with the goalie pulled, NYR would get within 1 again. Fortunately for the Rangers, they shut down the final minute of the game, and prevailed with a 6-5 semi-final win to get their revenge on the 2nd ranked North York Rangers and advance to the OHL Cup Championship.

Since late the end of the round robin, the Oakville players and coaches had a saying they were living by "our next loss is our last loss", as it would culminate the final game of their 6 years together. After this North York win, their new saying began: "One More".

Last stop on the Oakville Ranger revenge tour: the 1st ranked Vaughan Kings, who had given Oakville a controversial loss in the very first game of the round robin.