When the two best teams in the Smith Minor Atom Division get together you know it is going to be a hard fought battle to the very end.  The Oakville Rangers had lost one game all season --- a 4-3 thriller earlier this month against the Battalions and boasted the League's best goals against average, surrendering only 9 goals all season.  Saturday afternoon at Victoria Park Arena was setting up to be another one of those classic thrillers. 

The Battalions were riding a 6 game winning streak going into Saturday's game, however they new that they were going to have to play their best hockey of the regular season to pull off a victory against the rival Rangers. 

In  the early going, it was all Rangers.  Adam Dunn faced a number of shots and was up to the challenge.  He turned aside 16 of 18 shots he faced.  The Rangers got on the board half way through the second period with their first goal of the game and took a 2 goal lead early in the 3rd period on a goal mouth scramble.

The "never say die" battalions fought back late in the 3rd period when Sam Coleman converted his own rebound on a goal with only 2 minutes remaining.  Then with less than a minute left in the game Ryan Hodder had a great opportunity to tie the game when he broke into the Rangers zone on a partial break away but saw his shot fly high and wide of the net.

The story of the night had to be the way the young battalions continued to battle in spite of being outshot 19 to 14 in the game.  The defense played solidly in front of Dunn and the forwards had their fair share of chances to score --- narrowly missing the net on more than a few occasions.

Keep working hard boys!