Season Recap: Bitter End For Oakville Hockey

The Oakville hockey club’s season ended in heartbreak last week after an impressive run this season.

The Tigers finished this season with an 11-8-2 mark, and earned a No. 13 seed in the Challenge Cup tournament, which features the area’s top 16 hockey clubs. Oakville knocked off fourth-seeded Marquette (16-2-3) in the first round, a team that lost just two regular season games.

In the Challenge Cup quarterfinals, Oakville was one period away from advancing to the semifinals. However, the Webster Groves Skatesmen outlasted the Tigers, 5-4, in the series’ decisive Game 2 in an intense, back-and-forth battle last Tuesday, Feb. 15.

“I told each one of those guys not to hang their head and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Oakville first-year coach Derek Stephens said. “The guys in the locker room, the coaching staff and family were probably the only ones that believed that we could go as far as we did in the Challenge Cup.

“I told our young guys to remember this feeling,” Stephens said. “You got to learn from every loss and it’s all about how you respond.”

Webster Groves rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period to advance to the Challenge Cup semifinals for the first time since 2003. “I’ve been telling our guys that we have as much talent or maybe more talent than the teams in the 1990s,” Webster coach Dave Garth said.

Oakville needed a win after losing Game 1 of the series 5-2. In Game 2, the Tigers went down 2-0 before scoring four unanswered goals, including a power-play goal at the buzzer of the second period to go up 4-2.

The Skatesmen turned the game around in the third period, capped by an empty-net goal with a few seconds left for the game’s final margin.

Webster Groves went back to playing strong defense after tying the game and not allowing a strong scoring chance during the last few minutes of the game even after Oakville pulled their goalie.

“We talked in the locker room after the second period about working as a team and playing their role working as hard as you can especially holding on the last couple minutes,” said Webster’s Parker Stovall said.

The Tigers are building their program back up following the team’s 2006 Challenge Cup championship. The Tigers won the Wickenheiser Cup last year, and only had a handful of seniors this year meaning the core of this team will be ready to battle and contend again next season.

Meanwhile, Webster Groves will play top-seeded CBC; the other semifinal is SLUH against Francis Howell Central.