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Wounded Red Wings too much for Raiders EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer There will be no springtime Jr. A hockey in Georgetown in 2006 after the host Raiders were eliminated from the post-season somewhat shockingly by the Hamilton Red Wings on Saturday night in front of close to 1,000 spectators at the Mold-Masters SportsPlex. Even though second-place Hamilton finished eight points ahead of the Raiders in the regular season standings and won five of six meetings between the two, it appeared the Raiders were poised to take the second-round playoff series as one Red Wing after another went down with injury. The Raiders outshot and carried the play for much of the final two contests in the OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League West Conference semi-final, yet Hamilton emerged with a pair of 2-1 victories. The Red Wings finished off Georgetown on Saturday with just 14 healthy skaters, frustrating the seemingly snake-bitten Raider marksmen. Veteran Travis Kauffeldt, among some late-season Georgetown pickups expected to spark a sputtering offence, ended up with more fighting majors (two) than goals (one) in 12 post-season starts. "We had the team and the coaching staff and everything but we didn't get the right bounces when we needed it, especially in the two long overtime games," said third-year Raider defenceman Frank DeAngelis, who is being courted by U.S. colleges such as Canisius and Merrimack. "Even after (Saturday's) game was over, we still couldn't believe we'd lost. It started to sink in (Monday) after we cleaned out our lockers for the last time, and it still hurts." Thursday's pivotal fifth game at Mountain Arena in Hamilton went into double overtime and although the Raiders had many more opportunities to score than the home side, a terrible Georgetown line change led to a breakaway that Mike Galbraith finished coolly with a deke and shot over Ryan Gibb. "Sometimes a team can play better with more ice time when they're able to get a lead and just defend," said Raiders' coach Jay Anderson. "We outscored Hamilton in the series and dominated the last two games from the second period on. Our Achilles' heel was our inability to score, and that a team built on strength and brawn like us couldn't match their speed. But they more than know that they were in a series." In Saturday's well-played affair, the visiting Wings received more stellar netminding from Cameron Talbot and used two screen-shot goals past Gibb to build a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Wade Finegan's rebound goal early in the third period offered some hope but the equalizer never came. Georgetown's Jon Southgate sent Thursday's tilt into extra time with a last-minute thirdperiod marker after the Raiders had trailed since the early stages of the opening frame. As for next season, Georgetown's defence will have to be entirely rebuilt with the likes of all-stars DeAngelis, Erik Lundmark, Andrew Dennis, Ryan Lee and Matt Sitko moving on, as is 20-year-old Gibb. Hamilton now waits to play the winner of the other West Conference semi-final between the first-place Milton IceHawks and the Oakville Blades. Down 2-0 in the series, the Blades have stormed back to tie it 3-3, with game 7 tonight in Milton. RAIDER RAP: Georgetown native Ryan Ellis has been named State University of New York Athletic Conference rookie of the year after a fantastic freshman season with the Oswego State Lakers. The 21-year-old Ellis was the second-leading scorer in NCAA Division III hockey with 21 goals and 24 assists. But, for the second year in a row, the first-place Lakers were upset by Plattsburgh State in the recent SUNYAC playoff semi-final in two straight games...Also on the Oswego State team are former Raiders T.J. Manastersky and goalie Chris Hyk. Georgetown's Ryan Busby of Plattsburgh State was named as an honourable mention for SUNYAC all-star consideration. Busby, 22, led the Cardinals in scoring with 13 goals and 16 assists in 27 games and he had three assists over two games in the wins over Oswego. Plattsburgh State lost to Geneseo in the SUNYAC finals this past weekend. (Eamonn Maher can be reached at emaher@independentfreepress.com) Like many of his Georgetown Raider teammates, star goaltender Ryan Gibb made a painful exit from his last Jr. A hockey game as the Hamilton Red Wings celebrated their series victory at the Mold-Masters SportsPlex on Saturday night. Hamilton won the best-of-seven OPJAHL West Photo by Mike Bagley Conference semi-final series 4-2. Rebels, Jaguars shine at GHAC meet The flu bug prevented many Georgetown swimmers from competing at their best but the two local high schools still excelled at the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference meet last week at the University of Guelph. The Georgetown Rebels once again asserted their dominance in the GHAC pool, qualifying 32 athletes for this week's Ontario championships in Etobicoke and winning the overall team title by some 300 points. Rebels' swim coach John Newcombe was hopeful that many of his team members will have recovered in time for the provincial meet, held yesterday (Tuesday) and today at the Olympium. Alex McDonald of GDHS won all four of the races he entered, including the 50m and 100m freestyle, and heads up a Rebel senior boys' team that has captured an OFSAA title three years running. Teammate Ricky Davids broke a GHAC record in the senior boys' 50m butterfly, posting a time of 28.92 seconds in the final. Also winning individual races at the GHAC meet for Georgetown were Laura Evans (jr. girls' 50m butterfly), Gresham Kimm (jr. boys' 100m IM), Rebekka Bond (jr. girls' 100m IM) and Mark Gorski (boys' 200m freestyle). Georgetown's Christ the King Jaguars were led by Kim Galvin, who finished first in both the senior girls' 200m free and the 100m individual medley, breaking GHAC previous bests in the process. CTK's senior girls finished first in the team standings, and if illness hadn't prevented the Jaguars from entering swimmers in the junior boys' relays, coach Mark Knowlton said the local school would have placed second overall behind Georgetown. As it is, for just a third-year team, the Jaguars are well represented at OFSAA with 21 swimmers qualifying. Also posting GHAC race victories for Christ the King were Rory GaskillCadwallader (jr. boys' 50m free & 100m IM), Julie Silas (sr. girls' 100m free) and Billy Pavlopoulos (jr. boys' 50m free).