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by John B. McClelland The hockey season, which be- gan nearly nine months ago for the Port Perry MoJacks finally ended on Mothers' Day. The Mooretown Flags handed the MoJacks a 3-2 defeat at the Scugog Arena and captured the all-Ontario Junior C champion- ship series four games to one. With the MoJacks leading the game 2-°1 late in the third, the Flags struck twice at 14:05 to tie the game, and then again at 18:30 for the game and series winner. Darren Thompson got the equalizer just as the MoJacks had killed a penalty, and Dan Gardner knocked in the winner on a two on one break. Brian Tarleton, who was nothing short of brilliant in the MolJacks net all afternoon, had little chance on the two goals. The MoJacks had been hoping that a victory on Sunday would ~ push the series to a sixth game this coming Thursday night in Mooretown, and for a while it looked as if they might just do it. The teams traded power play goals in the first two minutes of the opening period with Kevin Long scoring for the MoJacks from Dean Smethurst and Rob. St. Jules, while Craig Lindsay re- plied for Mooretown. The teams were four-aside at 10:45 of the second when Sme- thurst gave MoJacks a 2-1 lead slapping in his own rebound at the side of the net. It appeared as if this goal might stand up until the Flags struck quickly late in the game. Tarleton faced 36 shots in the net, most of the difficult variety, including three clear breakaways. After falling behind three games to none in the series, the PROC nO ee We 5 20 3 ' I 5 ES MolJacks turned in a solid game Saturday night at the Scugog Are- na to defeat the Flags 5-1. They were in control from start to finish in this one, and it appeared as if they were finally starting to generate some series momentum, Rob Baker and Chris Edmons- ton scored in the first, Rob Met- calfe in the second, with Kevin Long and Rob St. Jules adding two more in the third. Shawn Jackson got the only marker for the Flags. In game three at the Scugog Arena May 4, the MoJacks found themselves completely bottled up for two periods, and the Flags posted a 3-1 victory to take a stranglehold on the series. The Flags simply checked the MolJacks into the ice during the first and third periods, killed pen- alties efficiently, and made the most of their scoring chances. The visitors took a 1-0 read on the power play at 4:36 of the first on a sharp angle shot by Ker- ry Adams that seemed to hit Brian Tarleton on the arm before bounc- ing into the net. The MoJacks were lucky to get out of the period down just 1- 0 as the Flags out-shot them 10-4 and generally controlled much of the play. The MoJacks seemed to find their skating legs in the second period after Darren Nesbitt scored at 7:36 with an assist to Rob St. Jules. Nesbitt fired a harmless looking shot from just inside the blue line that Ken Nicholson blocked with the stick, only to have the puck skip between his legs. That might have been the break the MoJacks were looking The Prince Albert Public School Wrestling Team did pretty well at a recent Durham meet, placing fourth overall. Pictured above are the team's individual win- ners, who won either gold, silver or bronze medals. At front Is John Bray, sliver; Warren Wakefield, bronze; Carlos Feaver, silver; (back) Colin Wiatrzyk, gold; Cory Bricknell, gold; Todd Parry, gold. for as they certainly picked up the pace considerably, but they failed to cash any power play advantages despite some good pressure in the Mooretown zone. The third period was a carbon copy of the first with the Flags once again throwing a big blanket over the MoJack forwards, check- ing them ferociously every time they had they puck. nd just past the mid-point, John\Germain got in behind the MoJack defense to beat Tarleton with a bac -hand shot. That 'proved to be the winner although the Flags scored once more in the final minute into an empty. Typically, the empty net- ter came while the MoJacks were on a power play. The Flags out-shot the Mo- Jacks 31-21 in this game, holding Port Perry to three shots in the fi- nal frame. It was a fairly clean game with the MoJacks taking ninje minors and the Flags 14. Failure to mount on any kind of a sus- tained offensive drive on the pow- er play chances was certainly a factor in the MoJack loss in this game. Following the game Sunday afternoon, MoJacks head coach 'George Burnett expressed disap- pointment that his team had been knocked out, but he was more than pleased that the MoJacks were able to go as far as they did. He said the Mooretown team deserved a lot of credit for their ef- forts in winning the champion- ship with strong checking and good positional play through the series. Burnett said he was very dis- appointed when the team was not able to win game three on home ice last Wednesday evening. After two seasons behind the bench as MoJacks head coach, Burnett will be moving on next year to Seneca College in Toronto where he will coach the Praves in the OCAA league. He will take a year's lcave from his teaching position at PPHS, and will continue to live in Port Perry. Burnett called the MoJacks or- ganization "first class" with-a hard working executive that gave him the freedom he wanted to run the hockey club. "The executive was very sup- portive, and I was blessed this year with a lot of talented hockey players," he said. : Burnett said if he had one seri- ous regret (aside from losing in the championship) it was the crit- icism the team heard from time to time about the number of non Port Perry players on the roster. He said the negative com- ments came from outside the community and when the team was winning. Aside from the loss of Burnett from behind the bench, the Mo- Jacks will have some big skates to fill as several players will be over-age next season. These include both goaltend- crs Paul Goreski and Brian Tarle- ton' captain Darren Nesbitt, Jeff McColl, Clay Dempsey, Kevin Long, Thane Ellis and Len Giaca- lone, all of whom made substan- tial contributions to the team's success this past season. CLOSING THOUGHTS: Al- though the MoJacks came up just a game or two short of the all- Ontario championship, Junior C fans in Port Perry were treated to some outstanding hockey enter- tainment all season long. No Port Perry team has ever advanced to the finals before. No tcam has ever won the League championship before this year. This team finished with 21 wins, seven losses and four ties over the regular schedule, brushed by Uxbridge in five in one series, won the round robin without ade- feat, knocked off the defending Ontario champions Lakefield in -four straight, and then played two of the most exciting best of seven hockey series you'll see anywhere against Wellington and Hanover. MolJacks reach the end of the road It will be a long time before Jr. C fans in this community for- get that seventh game against Hanover when the Scugog Arena was in a frenzy with excitement. Frankly, I don't think the Mo- Jacks recovered completely from that emotional high in time to re- group and adjust to the complete- ly different style of the Moore- town Flags. It may not be prudent to make excuses, but the "Hanover Hango- ver" was probably a factor in the final series. Following the team through the playoffs, which started way back in mid-February, I was struck by just how tough it is to win or even reach an all-Ontario Junior <C championship. It is a "long, hard grind and the competi- ton just gets better and better. As one who has followed Jun- ior C hockey in Port Perry for more than a decade, seeing the MolJacks go down to defeat May 8 was a bit of a disappointment, but (Turn to page 29) The Port Perry MoJacks gave it a decent shot over the weekend in their all-Ontario championship playoff series with the Mooretown Flags. Trailing three games to none In the series, the MoJacks won Satur- day evening 5-1, and appeared to be headed for vic- tory Sunday when the Flags struck twice late in the game to win 3-2 and take the series. It was the first appearance for either team in an all-Ontario Jr. C hockey final. (see story for details and some final comments on the MoJacks season)