Jr. A Raiders in a free-fall

Oakville Blades Trevor Eckenswiller (6) and Nick McParland (10) teamed up to dispossess Georgetown Raider forward Rob Sgarbossa of the puck during an OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League contest on

Saturday night at the Alcott Arena. The Blades won the lion's share of battles for loose pucks and dominated the Raiders from the opening puck drop, cruising to a 7-2 victory.

A week's break from the OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League's regular season schedule likely couldn't have come at a better time for the struggling Georgetown Raiders as their winless streak extended to four games over the weekend. After beginning the season with an 8-1-0-0 mark, the Raiders have just two wins in their past 10 outings and have fallen from second to fifth in the OPJAHL's West Conference standings. Defending division champion Oakville handed the Raiders their first regulation time loss at home of the year on Saturday night, as the Blades dominated from the opening minutes of the contest, outshooting the hosts 47-25 in a 7-2 victory. Even with three new faces in the lineup to try to shake the Raiders out of their slide, the third-place Blades scored four power-play goals on starter Keaton Hartigan and grabbed a 4-1 first-period lead. Former Georgetown sniper Joey Piccone cemented the result with a pair of goals in the middle stanza. Matt Carter and Jeremy Whelan replied for Georgetown. Shifty 16-year-old forward George Lovatsis made his return to the Raiders after getting little playing time with the OHL's Barrie Colts and two new defencemen started against Oakville after being picked up from Ajax. Twenty-year-old Peter Drikos, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound blueliner, made his debut, as did 18-year-old Keegan McFarlane, who had two goals and two assists in 14 starts with the Attack. On Friday night in Burlington, the Raiders once again squandered a lead in a road game against the secondplace Cougars, settling for a 4-4 draw. After building a 3-0 cushion midway through the game, the visitors had to scramble for the equalizer with less than two minutes to go in the third period as Kyle Schwende netted his second of the night on a power play. Lovatsis and Carter added single markers for 10-5-2-2 Georgetown. Ahead for the Raiders this week is just one game, a date with the sixthplace Streetsville Derbys Saturday at the Alcott Arena beginning at 8 p.m.