Third-period deficits haven’t fazed the Oakville Blades all playoffs.

Apparently, losing their starting netminder for the rest of the year doesn’t faze them either.

With backup goaltender Oliver Wren seeing his first meaningful action in nearly two months, the Blades scored four unanswered goals in the final period Thursday to defeat the Newmarket Hurricanes 5-2 in the final round-robin game of the Dudley Hewitt Cup tournament.

The win completed a 3-0 preliminary-round showing by Oakville and earned the Blades a spot in Saturday’s championship game, while Newmarket (2-1) will have to face the Dryden Ice Dogs in a semifinal contest Friday.

Thursday marked Oakville’s first post-season game without Scott Greenham starting in net. Greenham turned 21 Thursday, meaning he could not continue playing for the Blades this season without forfeiting a year of NCAA eligibility at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Wren more than picked up the slack for his departed teammate. He stopped 21 of 23 Newmarket shots, including several acrobatic saves seconds before the Blades tied the game 1-1 late in the first period, and was named Oakville’s player of the game.

“I’ve never been the type of guy who needs a long time to prepare. I just wanted to be ready for when the coaching staff called on me,” said Wren, who had been aware of Greenham’s potential eligibility issues for the past several months. “To be honest, I was never the most talented goalie, growing up playing AA hockey and high school hockey. I kind of bloomed late and have always been a hard worker in the gym and on the ice. That’s what’s got me where I am.”

The Hurricanes got goals from Adam McArthur and Jeff Henderson to offset an Oakville marker by Jeremy Welsh and carry a 2-1 lead into the third period. That’s when the Blades took over, however, outshooting Newmarket 20-4 in the final frame.

Geoff Guimond tied the game before the six-minute mark of the third, and Lindsay Sparks put the Blades ahead with eight minutes to go in regulation. Nick McParland added two late insurance goals, his seventh and eighth tallies of the tournament.

MacArthur preferred to focus on his team’s play in the first two periods, rather than dwell on how the Hurricanes were outplayed in the final 20 minutes.

“It was probably two of our best periods of the year,” he said. “We’ll just forget about that (third period), concentrate on the positives and come back and focus on Dryden tomorrow. We won’t even worry about the finals yet.”

Wayne Savage made 46 saves for Newmarket in a losing cause, earning player-of-the-game honours for the Hurricanes.