Raiders enjoy rare win-win weekend

The host Georgetown Raiders put a stop to first-place Oakville's 15-game winning streak with a 5-2 triumph Saturday over the Blades and have also made at least a couple of deals prior to the OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League's roster cutdown deadline, set for midnight tonight (Wednesday). Veteran goalie Keaton Hartigan was named the first star in the victory over Oakville, making 19 third-period stops and showing no ill effects from a pre-holiday ankle injury. Second-period goals by Matt Carter, Jeremy Whelan and Adam DeJong staked the fourthplace Raiders out to a 3-1 lead as they posted their first victory over the 31-6-1-1 Blades in the fifthand-final regular-season meeting between the two clubs. Leading scorer Ryan Ford and Whelan chipped in empty-net markers in the last minute of the contest. Georgetown has now won 11 straight games including their Newmarket Jr. A Showcase championship in late December and two new lineup additions made impressive debuts on Saturday evening in front of about 600 spectators at the Alcott Arena. Seventeen-year-old blueliner Evan Zych of Kilbride was picked up from Milton after the Raiders beat the host IceHawks 7-6 in overtime Friday night. The 5-foot11 185-pounder had been captain for Milton in his rookie campaign and will move on to the University of Massachusetts at Lowell on a scholarship in September. Sparkplug centre Denver Manderson from Fergus, 17, who has had stints with Guelph and Kitchener of the OHL this year, earned an assist against the Blades. At 5-foot9 and 145 pounds, Manderson had 10 goals and 19 assists in 17 starts for the Guelph Jr. B Dominators before being acquired by Georgetown. Director of player personnel Peter Mavroudis has a couple of open cards remaining to sign players with and will likely have to wait until after tonight's OPJAHL Future Stars Games in Georgetown before final roster decisions are made. Forward George Lovatsis has been splitting time with the Raiders and the Barrie Colts recently and might be signed by that OHL team for the rest of the season. "We're involved in about 10 different deals right now. Some are hinging on what happens with the OHL trade deadline and there will be a chain reaction once certain deals take place," said Mavroudis, who wants to add a defender and a forward or two. "Beating Oakville has our guys believing they can win against the top teams and we're conveying that message as an organization by going out and getting these players to show we're serious about winning right now." In Friday's game at Milton, the IceHawks and Raiders traded leads in an entertaining tilt that ended with defenceman Ryan Lee jumping into the rush to convert a cross-ice pass from Kyle Schwende 1:25 into extra time. Ford registered another hat trick for Georgetown, with singles added by Schwende, rookie Spencer Metcalfe and the equalizer by Rob Sgarbossa with five minutes left in the third period. Raider captain Wade Finegan sat out the weekend games with a hand infection but should be back for Saturday's home match against the Streetsville Derbys at 7:30 p.m.

Ryan Ford (40) of the Georgetown Raiders shovels a rebound from teammate Jeremy Whelan past Milton goalie Vince Cusick and defenceman Evan Zych to give the visitors a 4-3 lead late in the second period over the host IceHawks on Friday evening at Milton's Memorial Arena. The Raiders prevailed 7-6 in overtime and then beat the first-place Oakville Blades 5-3 at home Saturday.