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Women's hockey coach has Ice in his veins EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer After several successful seasons with one of the National Women's Hockey League's top franchises, Georgetown resident Stephen Bennett resigned last May as coach and general manager of the Brampton Thunder, vowing to take a break from the rink for a while. "A while" didn't last but a couple of months, however, as Bennett received a phone call from Randy Hall, coach and director of hockey operations for the NWHL's Oakville Ice, to join him as an assistant with the club for the 200607 campaign. A slow start to the season for the Ice STEVE didn't make the 45-yearBENNETT old Bennett second-guess his decision to get back into coaching so soon, and the Oakville squad has shown steady improvement, including a 3-0 victory over Brampton on Friday at Georgetown's Alcott Arena. "I was with Brampton for nine years and eventually people tune you out," said Bennett, who works at Mississauga's Parks & Recreation Department. "We won the nationals and we'd won the league and we did everything we could have accomplished. There was a lot of administrative work and North Halton Twisters' Girls' Hockey Association. Bennett isn't the only Halton Hills connection in the Ice organization as Georgetown's forward Dayna Kanis plays for the Oakville Jr. AA team and had an assist for the senior side as a recent call-up. The 19-year-old Kanis left Lake Forest University in Illinois during her sophomore season to enroll at the University of Guelph while playing for the 12-13-1-2 Ice. The Twisters are celebrating their 10th anniversary as an organization and took time prior to Friday's contest to honour 15 of its founding volunteers. Kathleen Bevan, who along with longtime assistant Janet Garton coached the firstever Twister rep team, was among those recognized for their years of dedication. Her Peewee Twisters were the first local squad to earn a medal at the provincial championships with a runner-up finish at the 199798 tournament in Mississauga. "I've always believed that kids shouldn't have the same coach year after year after year, so I think we've been through pretty much every age group," said Bevan, who played varsity hockey at Dalhousie University and is considering a comeback with the Friday Night Twisters' women's league in Acton. "The growth of girls' hockey over the last decade has been unbelievable. I never thought we'd have a rep program when we started with the house league, so it's come a long way." Amanda Barre of the Oakville Ice gets a rough ride from Brampton's Kristy Zamora Friday while teammate Carly Haggard (7) swoops in for the scraps as the National Women's Hockey League played a regular-season game at Georgetown's Alcott Arena for the fifth year in a row. The Ice, with local resident Stephen Bennett servPhoto by Eamonn Maher ing as an assistant coach, skated to a 3-0 win. pressure with the Thunder because we were expected to win. It was also a dual job, so I didn't have much time for my (wife and two daughters, eight and four years old). With Oakville, I can just coach and go home." The Ice has 10 rookies on its roster and one of the team's veterans, Canadian women's Olympic team gold medalist Becky Kellar, has been out of the lineup as she's expecting a child later this month. Goalie Tania Pinelli, a former standout at Niagara University, made 34 saves in recording the shutout on Friday. Jana Harrigan, Sara MacDonald and Amanda Barre scored for Oakville in the regular season encounter, which was the annual fund-raiser for the Raiders appear mired in fourth place despite season-high 10-game win streak EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer Even a 10-game winning streak hasn't allowed the Georgetown Raiders to have much margin for error in the OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League West Division standings heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. Jeremy Whelan struck for a hat trick in Monday's 6-2 comeback win over seventh-place Mississauga and now has 25 goals in this campaign. Wade Finegan, Zak Ray and Adam DeJong also tallied for the Raiders, who dominated the first period yet trailed 2-1 heading into the intermission. The 28-9-3-3 Raiders are in fourth spot in the West table, unlikely to catch front-runners Oakville, Hamilton or Brampton for third place and almost certain to face the fifth-seeded Burlington Cougars in the opening round of playoffs, set to start Feb. 9. Georgetown hasn't lost since falling 7-2 to Brampton on Dec. 16 and the undefeated string increases to 16 when the six-game Newmarket Showcase Tournament title run is included. But the Cougars, who ended Hamilton's 11-game win streak with a 1-0 road win Monday night, can still catch the Raiders for home-ice advantage in their anticipated bestof-7 conference quarter-final matchup. Georgetown leads Burlington by three points with two games in hand and the teams will meet for the sixth, and final, time in the regular season this Friday at Central Arena. The Raiders lead the series 3-0-2. "We're probably going to see Burlington in the playoffs so Friday will be like a playoff game because both teams want to see where they stand," said Raiders' head coach James Richmond. "They're playing well and so are we. I just like the way our team is set up and because we're playing all four lines, eventually you'll wear the other team down. There's been plenty of hockey played in the last month where we could have had a bad game sneak up on us, but we've found ways to win. It's easy to lose your way when you're playing well and run into a hot goalie and be losing to Mississauga like we were. The thing is not to panic and just keep working at it." See RAIDERS, pg. 15 Georgetown Raiders' goalie Marc Stuart disappoints a couple of Mississauga Chargers' forwards by cleanly catching a point shot during the first period of their OPJAHL game Monday at Port Credit Arena. The Raiders fell behind 2-1 before eventually overcoming the Chargers 6-2. Photo by Eamonn Maher