Oakville Hockey Claims Winter Classic Win Over Marquette

The temperatures may have been ice cold Saturday night for the 2012 Shaw Park Winter Classic, but the Oakville Tigers Hockey Club stayed hot and earned themselves a thrilling 1-0 victory over Suburban Southwest Conference rival Marquette High School. 

Oakville hasn’t lost a game yet in 2012 and came into the night with an 11-2-2 mark since Thanksgiving.

“I just told the guys to go out and have fun tonight,” Oakville head coach Derek Stephens said. “It’s an experience that not a lot of people get to do. And I think it’s really neat because these guys get to feel as close as they’re going to get to the NHL Winter Classic that we all watch on TV every year.”

Since 2008, the City of Clayton’s Shaw Park has hosted three Winter Classics, and each of them has been better than the one before it.

“It’s just great, with all the people that came out on this cold night to support it,” Oakville assistant coach and event co-organizer Mick O'Halloran said. “It’s been so much fun, with the lights and the old-time hockey feel, for us coaches and all the kids. We’re just grateful to the City of Clayton for putting it on for us.”

The matchup most people wanted to see was the showdown between conference frontrunner Oakville and second-place Marquette – two teams with stellar records this year.

Oakville is 13-3-3 overall this year, while Marquette is 10-6-3.

The two clubs will meet on Thursday in a game that could clinch the league title for Oakville, which is 6-0-2 in conference games this year with just two more games to play.

Marquette is 4-2-3 this year, and could tie for the title if they win on Thursday and get a little help in Oakville’s final regular season game next Saturday.

For now though, the Tigers and Mustangs met in an exhibition game at the Winter Classic, which had a much friendlier feel than what most expect when the teams meet again on Thursday.

“This was a lot of fun, but it was almost like a friendly game,” Marquette hockey coach Ryan Kane said. “I can assure you that it’ll be different on Thursday. The intensity will be ratcheted up. That’s a big game for both of us.”

Oakville treated Saturday like it was its own big game.

Not only did the Tigers play their usual stellar defense shutting out Marquette, but they also broke out some special uniforms, official replicas of the 1928 Boston Bruins uniforms, which like the storied Bruin history, led Oakville to the win.

Sophomore forward Brendan Coon also chipped in for the victory.

It was his score at the 5:57 mark of the second period on a nice setup by teammates Brendan Nichting and Joey Guy that put the Tigers ahead.

“Give credit to Oakville,” Kane said. “They played a terrific defensive game tonight.”

Marquette nearly tied the score twice in the final two minutes of the game.

First, Marquette senior Kory Hendrickson got blocked by Oakville goaltender Zach Jost with 2:12 left in the game. A bit later, Jost made the play of the game—a sensational sprawling save on a point-blank chance by Marquette team captain Sam Turner with 15 seconds left. 

The play brought the entire crowd to its feet, as the Marquette faithful thought they had tied the game and avoided the loss, while the Oakville fans celebrated because they could see that the puck hadn’t even reached the goal line.

Both coaches said they expected a similar rowdy crowd when the teams meet on Thursday for one of the biggest games of the year.

Oakville and Marquette will drop the puck on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Recreation Center.