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40 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 11, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Novice Rangers win SCTA crown Excellent penalty-killing helped the Oakville novice AAA Rangers hold off the Niagara Falls Thunder and win the South Central Triple A novice hockey championship recently in Niagara. Clinging to a 3-2 lead in the third period, the Rangers were shorthanded for six of the game's final eight minutes but were able to kill off the penalties. Oakville's 3-2 triumph gave the Rangers a 2-1 win in the best-of-three series. Nicholas Leshuk scored the game-winning goal in the decider, tapping in a rebound after an end-to-end rush by teammate Will MacQueen. Christopher Purkis and Dom Commisso also tallied for the Rangers, with assists going to Alex Matheson, Nicholas Randell and Justin McKenna. Nicole Cece and Spencer Stewart shared the win in goal for the Rangers, who were outshot 18-13 but killed eight of nine Niagara powerplay chances in the final contest. Other members of the SCTA champion Rangers, sponsored by Med-Emerg International Inc., are Jonathan Reid, Kyle Potts, Daniel Moll, Matthew Milford, Jonathan Donville, Matthew Danner, Bailey Newton and Michael Hickey. John Hickey, Bill MacQueen, Joel Pike, Kent Potts and Frank Moll coach the team. SCTA CHAMPS: The Oakville novice AAA Rangers were tops this season in the South Central Triple A hockey association, clinching their title with a 2-1 win over Niagara in the best-of-three final series. Hinchcliffe starts season strong Sunken concrete slab Concrete raising is a cost-effective alternative to replacing concrete. Concrete raising lifts sidewalks, streets, ramps, patios, pool decks, driveways, foundations, parking lots, garage floors and basements almost anything that's concrete. Its highly effective in commercial, municipal and residential situations. Concrete raising can usually be done for a fraction of the cost of pouring new concrete, however, the savings may be even greater since the costs of demolition, removal and landscaping are eliminated. Slabjacking, as it is known in the trade, can be completed quickly and economically with minimal disruption, a patio can be raised in the morning and be ready to use that very night! Holes are drilled in sunken slab Pressure injected grout raises the slab Oakville's James Hinchcliffe made a good first impression with his new team. The Oakville Trafalgar High School grad finished fourth at Sunday's season-opening Champ Car Atlantic Vegas Grand Prix, his first race with Sierra Sierra Enterprises after driving for Forsythe in his rookie season on the circuit. Hinchcliffe's Sierra Sierra teammate, Raphael Matos, won the race. Hinchcliffe earned a spot in the first row in Friday qualifying session. The 20-year-old driver won the provisional pole, turning in the fastest lap of one minute, 32.410 seconds on the 2.44-mile Las Vegas street circuit. Being at the front of pack certainly paid off in a caution-filled race that saw 15 of the 27 cars fail to finish the race due to accidents. "With the way the day was going, with lots of cars in the wall, we knew that to come away with a solid points haul would be a good result," said Hinchcliffe, who finished 10th in the series standings in his rookie season. "I had such a strong car all weekend so I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that and our ability to come away with a decent finish to get the season underway. A lot of guys are leaving here with nothing and a bunch of damaged cars, I'm leaving tied in third in the standings with Jonathan Bomarito so it's not a bad place to be." Hinchcliffe had his own encounter with the wall, which brought Saturday's qualifying session to an early end. Rookie Robert Wickens of Toronto won the pole position and Hinchcliffe's performance on Friday made it an all-Canadian front row. The first of four caution periods allowed Hinchcliffe to move into the lead as he moved ahead of Wickens on the restart on lap five. A second caution negated Hinchcliffe's advantage and this time Wickens regained the lead on the restart on lap nine. Yellow flags would appear two more times and seven of the last 11 laps were under cautions. Matos got by Hinchcliffe on the restart on lap 15 and after a seven-car pileup, Jonathan Bomarito slipped by dropping Hinchcliffe to fourth, where he stayed until the checkered flag dropped three laps later. "The race was pretty frustrating to be honest," Hinchcliffe said. "It felt like a club race in some respects as we just couldn't get enough laps run under green with all the accidents and cautions going on. It's a little disappointing and from my own perspective I think we had a car that was far better suited to longer runs which we just didn't get with events on-track." The Champ Car Atlantic series moves to Long Beach this weekend and Houston the following week. -- Herb Garbutt