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Sports Oakville Beaver Jones one step closer to Olympics PAGE 24 21 SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, MAY 10 2008 Over & out Dream season ends too soon for Blades' players By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR CORNWALL - The standings will suggest the Oakville Blades were the fifth-best team at this year's Royal Bank Cup. Nick McParland, Chris Corbeil and the Blades aren't convinced. Oakville's remarkable season came to a sudden and decisive end Thursday in Cornwall with a 6-1 loss to the topranked Camrose Kodiaks. The Blades finished the roundrobin portion of the national junior A hockey championships with a 1-3 mark, and were the only club in the fiveteam field not to advance to today's semifinal round. "It's a little disappointing," said McParland, who had the Blades' lone goal Thursday. "Deep down, we feel we're the best. Everybody says to be happy and that only five teams in the nation make it (to the Royal Bank Cup), but I don't really feel that way. I feel we were the best." Corbeil, Oakville's captain, added, "I think, with a healthy squad, we're the first-place team. No question. We're much less than 100 per cent right now. Had we had everybody, it would have been a different story here." Already without year-long starting netminder Scott Greenham (NCAA eligibility issues) and veteran defenceman Trevor Eckenswiller (leg injury) throughout the tournament, the Blades were forced to play their final game without Chris Haltigin. Haltigin, arguably the team's best allaround blueliner, separated his shoulder Wednesday at the end of the Blades' 7-6 win over the Humboldt Broncos. Camrose wasn't playing with a full lineup either, however. Having already clinched first place in the opening round, the Kodiaks sat out their top forward (Joe Colborne, the nation's top junior A player this year), top defenceman (Karl Stollery) and star netminder (Allen York, a Columbus Blue Jackets prospect). It didn't slow the Kodiaks. Camrose scored four unanswered goals in the second period -- three of them shorthanded -- to break open a 1-1 game and coast to the victory. Oliver Wren, thrust into the starter's role when Greenham stopped playing for the team three weeks ago after turning 21, was pulled following the Kodiaks' fourth goal. Sixteen-year-old Craig Rylett came in to finish the game. "Camrose has a lot of depth. It doesn't matter who they put in their lineup, and it showed," Blades head coach Carlo Coccimiglio said. "The loss of Haltigin really hurt (us). That might have been more of a setback for us than Camrose sitting out players (was for them)." While it was the loss to Camrose that officially eliminated the Blades from the tournament, defeats at the hands of the Cornwall Colts and Weeks Crushers earlier in the week might have been more costly. The Colts and Crushers were the two lowestranked teams entering the tournament. But the Blades fell 4-3 to Cornwall Sunday (a day after the Colts were pounded 7-0 by Humboldt) and then let a third-period lead slip away Monday in a 5-4 overtime loss to Weeks. The Crushers also finished the round-robin with a 1-3 record, but beat out Oakville for the final playoff spot because they won the head-to-head matchup. "Had we won that game, we would have been playing for seedings in the semis," Corbeil said of the loss to Weeks. "We really had to almost accomplish the impossible by taking down the top two teams in the country. We answered the call against Humboldt, but we ran out of gas (against Camrose). "It obviously wasn't the best tournament for us, no question about that," he continued. "But when you reflect on the season as a whole, it was a really successful season. When you're playing into May, you have to give yourself some credit." En route to the Royal Bank Cup, the Blades won their conference, the North/West championship, the Provincial Junior A Hockey League title and the Dudley Hewitt Cup. They were the first-ever Oakville team to advance past the Junior A finals. Many members of the team are expected to return next season. "There are a lot of positives that came out of this," said Coccimiglio. "This was a great experience for those hockey players, and I'm very proud of them." JON KUIPERIJ / OAKVILLE BEAVER $ 2375 Wyecroft Road Oakville · 1-866-451-2722 · email: sales@oakvilletoyota.ca 23,400 $ 14,565 $ 15,705