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OkillSports 16SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2011 Blades declaw Cougars, off to league semis againBy Jon KuiperijBEAVER SPORTS EDITORKyle Blaney had envisioned all day how the Oakville Blades would eliminate the Burlington Cougars. He just didnt anticipate that hed be the one to do it.Blaney scored early in overtime to lift the Blades to a 3-2 win over the Cougars Tuesday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex, providing the finishing touch on Oakvilles 4-2 series triumph over Burlington in the Ontario Junior Hockey League quarter-finals.Blaney took his time after receiv-ing a pass in the slot, pulled the puck to his backhand and then fired a shot past Cougars netmind-er Adrian Volpe 1:39 into the extra session.Its definitely the biggest goal Ive ever scored, said Blaney, a 19-year-old Burlington resident. It was almost like a dream. I was thinking about it all day, whos going to do it, somebodys got to get the winning goal. I never thought itd be in overtime and I never thought it would be myself.Blaneys marker sends the Blades to their fourth league semi-DAN HO / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVERfinal appearance in as many years, although they wont know their MOVING ON: Oakville Blades forward Josh Ranalli beats Burlington Cougars goaltender Adrian Volpe to give Oakville a 2-0 lead in Tuesday's Ontario Juniornext opponent until the last quar-Hockey League playoff contest at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. The Cougars came back to force overtime before the Blades won 3-2 to advance to the league semi-ter-final series concludes tonight finals.(Thursday). If the Newmarket Hurricanes defeat the Stouffville the West Division-leading Cougarsstretch, Oakville goaltender Daniel Oakville frustrated the Cougars easier to play defence because someSpirit, Oakville will face the during the regular season.Savelli said. We hit our (stride) throughout the series by keeping nights youre not going to get theKingston Voyageurs. If Stouffville But the Blades, who concludedjust before playoffs.them to the outside of the ice, offence. the fifth seed in the North/West the regular season with a 20-1-1The Blades also managed to blocking shots and deflecting pass-Its easier to buy in and playConference upsets Newmarket, run, dont see it that way.tame the Cougars league-leading es with regularity.(defence) than play run and gun.the Blades will take on the I wouldnt say it was an upset. Ioffence. Burlington averaged 5.74 Its all of us collectively as a Burlingtons Chris Carr, whoWellington Dukes.know a lot of people probablygoals per game during the regular group, said Blaney, whose team was held to five points in six gamesOn paper, at least, Oakville is wouldnt have picked us because of season, but managed just 20 mark-allowed the third-least number of by the Blades after notching 13fresh off an upset of its own. The the season we had, but we were oneers in the six-game series with the goals in the league this year. We points in a first-round sweep of theBlades finished six points behind of the hottest teams down theBlades.want to play defence. We realize its See Cougars, page 17