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28 Independent & Free Press,Thursday, March 18, 2010 SPORTS & LEISURE Jaguars ready for OFSAA's big stage By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer Making their first-ever appearance at the provincial boys' high school hockey championships, Christ the King's Jaguars won't be content with just picking up a few souvenirs. The Jags are seeded 10th for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA/AAAA boys' hockey championship tournament in St. Catharines, which begins Tuesday afternoon with a game against the third-ranked Orangeville Bears. It's just the fourth year of play for CtK's boys' hockey program and making the provincial championships comes a little ahead of schedule, but considering the grueling route taken to get this far, the team feels it's battle-tested to take on the best in Ontario. "We've kind of had a magical season and it's gone past the point where we've achieved all the goals we set at the start of the year," said Jaguars' head coach Scott Van de Valk. "There's a feeling in our dressing room that we can accomplish more because everyone on this team is committed to winning hockey games and not their own personal stats and we proved that at GHAC." Whatever the outcome at OFSAA, CtK's varsity boys can peg a number of firsts to their 2009-10 list of achievements, including the Bur-Bear Invitational tourney title in late January and a regular spot in the Toronto Star's top-10 coaches' poll. They went on to place second in the Halton Tier I division with a 7-2-2 mark, knocking off rival Notre Dame in a dramatic overtime semifinal, followed by a dominating performance over league-leading Loyola to claim the HSSAA championship. Then, to get to the provincial finals, the short-staffed Jags skated away with a 1-0 victory in Hamilton over Brebeuf in front of a packed Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena in the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference title game. Dylan Hanzelka scored the goal and Marcus Rees posted the shutout. "That was one of the gutsiest efforts by a shorthanded team I've ever seen," Van de Valk said. "We killed off two penalties in the last five minutes of the third period and gave up only one shot on goal. We were down to threeand-a-half defencemen and 11 skaters and we're still a little banged up, but we'll be ready for Tuesday." A well-traveled group that has faced competition in Europe and Arizona over the past couple of years, CtK's squad could have a bit of an advantage in St. Catharines after having played an exhibition game and tournament there earlier this season. The Jaguars will also face Hamilton's Sherwood, St. Peters of Peterborough and Toronto's St. Basil The Great in the preliminary round. Mississauga's St. Marcellinus is the top seed and host Denis Morris is number two. Christ the King's Jaguars qualified for next week's provincial hockey championships in St. Catharines with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Hamilton's Brebeuf to capture the Golden Horseshoe championship. Team members (front, from left) are: Troy Breen, Marcus Rees, Matt Quinn, Dylan Hanzelka, Jake Tousignault, Justin Kaye, Shayne Brown. Back row: Brendan Krivec, Dylan Hannan, Chris Guerrette, Hayden Mancini, Dylan Agnew, Michael Jobin, Kamil Burghardt, Jason Skweres, Brendan Uberig. Absent from photo: Head coach Scott Van de Valk, assistant coaches Jeff McCloskey, Jared Rouselle, Mike Silvello, trainer Anthony Orsini. Submitted photo Local rink put on ice Vice Katie Steele (left) and teammate Emily Peddie are members of skip Daniel Mikulic's rink who competed for host Club at North Halton last weekend in the Ontario Curling Association bantam mixed regional playdowns. Team Mikulic won its opening game but lost the next two and was eliminated. Guelph's Eric Bradley and Matt Dickson of Elmira were the two rinks that qualified for the provincial championships in Ilderton later this month. Photo by Calvin Dyke REGISTER NOW! Spring Programs Begin April 3rd - Gymnastics - Tumbling - Trampoline For kids of all ages and abilities Register On Line at: better with every step. adidasrunning.com Available at www.haltonhillsgymnastics.com Tel 905-877-4330 36 Armstrong Ave., Georgetown 72 Main Street South, Georgetown, ON L7G 3G3