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28 Sports Oakville Beaver www.aplushomes.ca Adam Campbell Broker of Record 905-844-4444 B R O K E R A G E I N D E P E N D E N T LY O W N E D A N D O P E R AT E D SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008 Golden smile Dudley Hewitt win earns Blades trip to nationals By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR NEWMARKET -- The Oakville Blades are the best junior A hockey team in central Canada. And they are taking that claim to the Bank. Oakville will compete for its firstever national title at next week's RBC Royal Bank Cup in Cornwall, a right it earned by winning the Dudley Hewitt Cup last weekend in Newmarket. The Blades completed a dominant showing at the four-team Central Canadian championship tournament with a 6-3 victory over the host Newmarket Hurricanes in Saturday's final. Rounding out the Royal Bank Cup field will be the Eastern Canadian champion Weeks Crushers (Nova Scotia), Pacific representative Camrose Kodiaks (Alberta), Western Canadian champion Humboldt Broncos (Saskatchewan) and tournament host Cornwall Colts. The Royal Bank Cup will begin Saturday, with Oakville scheduled to see its first action at 7 p.m. Sunday against Cornwall. DEREK WOOLLAM / OAKVILLE BEAVER Steady improvement "I'm really happy, and proud of the boys," Blades head coach Carlo Coccimiglio said following the Dudley Hewitt final. "To turn the clock back and go to Day 1 when we had our try- OLYMPIC DREAMS: Sarah Campbell, a player with the Oakville Hornets tyke Red Devils girls' hockey team, poses for her parents with an Olympic gold medal. The gold medal was property of Canadian women's hockey team members Jayna Hefford, Jennifer Botterill and Becky Kellar, who put the Red Devils through a fun practice Sunday at Canlan Ice Sports. The Red Devils won the practice through the RBC Ultimate Hockey Experience contest. See Page 31 for the story. outs, and see how much they improved... they just got better and better and paid the price. All year guys were going down, and someone else would step up." Oakville lost key cogs of its team to injury throughout the year, particularly high-scoring forward Domenic Monardo and veteran defenceman Trevor Eckenswiller. But the biggest hit to the Blades' roster -- seemingly coming at the worst possible time -- had nothing to do with torn muscles or broken bones. Goaltender Scott Greenham stopped playing for the team in the middle of the Dudley Hewitt Cup, forced to the sidelines in order to keep his full NCAA eligibility for when he attends the University of AlaskaFairbanks in the fall. Backup netminder Oliver Wren, who hadn't seen substantial game action since the end of the regular season, stepped in and backstopped the Blades to their final two wins at the tournament. "Everyone was curious to see how Oliver would react. I'll be honest, we'd seen some great Oliver Wren throughout the year, and we'd also seen some bad stuff from Oliver," said Oakville captain Chris Corbeil. "I had confidence in him personally and knew he was really focused, but, after being off See McParland page 30 As we celebrate VOLUNTEER WEEK ­ APRIL 27-MAY 3 Thank you to the thousands of volunteers who have made the Oakville Soccer Club the success it is today!! TFC PACKAGES AVAILABLE THURSDAY MAY 1ST vs. M SATURDAY MAY 17TH MBUS MBUS MBUS vs. COLUMBUS @ 3:30PM CREW W NEW YORK RED BULLS CONTACT: MATT @ mmaclaren@oakville-soccer.on.ca or Front Reception at Oakville Soccer Club Monday-Friday 10am-7pm ­ Subject to Availability ­ Quantities Limited 504 Iroquois Shore Rd., Unit #11, Oakville, ON L6H 3K4 The Oakville Beaver Tel: 905-849-4436 Fax: 905-849-3677 A Proud Sponsor of Oakville Soccer Club