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Sports Oakville Beaver www.aplushomes.ca Adam Campbell 905-844-4444 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 Broker of Record B R O K E R A G E SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2009 25 Opening-game loss doesn't faze Blades The Ontario Junior Hockey League's semifinal round couldn't have started much worse for the Oakville Blades, but they quickly recovered. Oakville rebounded from a heartbreaking openinggame loss to down the Wellington Dukes 4-2 Sunday and square the series 1-1. The teams were scheduled to play Game 3 last night (Tuesday) at Joshua's Creek Arenas, and will clash again tomorrow (Thursday) in Wellington for Game 4. Braden Birch, Jordan Smith, Dustin Alcock and Kellan Lain scored Sunday for the Blades, who jumped out to a 20 lead in the opening period. Lindsay Sparks had three assists and Matt Hache made 26 saves in the win. Oakville dropped Friday's series opener at home, 4-3, as the Dukes' Marty O'Grady netted the game-winner with 20 seconds left in regulation. The Blades had rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game only five minutes earlier. "I thought after we tied that game up, we had the momentum. I thought Kellan Lain we'd get into overtime and score," said Lain, who scored to tie the game 3-3, "but unfortunately they got that one at the end." That made Sunday's long road trip to Wellington all the more important. Oakville head coach Carlo Coccimiglio chalked up his team's ability to regroup to the experience gained during last year's league championship run. "Our experienced players from last year, they know the character it takes to win," he said. "It was heartbreaking, knowing we played so well (in Game 1) and weren't rewarded, but we showed a lot of character bouncing back." Lain had two goals and Jeremy Welsh also tallied in Friday's loss. Oakville fired 22 shots at Dukes goaltender Steele Defazio in the first period alone, ending the game with a 43-33 advantage in shots. OMHA CHAMPS: The Oakville midget AAA Rangers gather for a team photo after winning their Ontario Minor Hockey Association tournament last weekend in Peterborough. Members of the team are Brian Betts, David Johnston, Nicolas Soubry, Jake Jagodkin, Tyler Badham, Mark Bennett, Scott Wilson, Jacob Liptok, Braeden Corbeth, Mark Runciman, Ryan Wallik, Brett Lee, Scott Somerville, Jeff Pinto, Brendan Quigg, Michael Mirabelli, Patrick Feric, Daniel Purcell, Michael Scott and Brandon Alderson.Tom Daley, Mike Daley and Rick Redshaw coach the team, and Bruce MacRae is the trainer. Midgets bound for OHF tournament By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR The hockey gods finally smiled on the Oakville midget AAA Rangers. The Rangers won Oakville's first Ontario Minor Hockey Association midget AAA championship in 15 years, working overtime to edge the YorkSimcoe Express 2-1 in the final of last weekend's OMHA tournament in Peterborough. The title earned Oakville a berth in next week's Ontario Hockey Federation championships in Burlington, where the Rangers hope to become the town's first-ever allDukes lose sniper Ontario midget AAA champion. Wellington is facing its share of adversity this series as Daniel Purcell scored the OMHA-winwell. ning goal against York-Simcoe in the secThe Dukes will be without Marc Senecal, the league's ond overtime period, one of several leading scorer in playoffs, for the rest of the post-season. Senecal, who had 18 points in Wellington's five-game Central Division final series against the Toronto Canadiens, turned 21 Friday and chose to stop playing for The Oakville minor peewee AE Rangers have won their the Dukes in order to maintain his NCAA eligibility for second straight OMHA championship, finishing an undenext season. Oakville ran into problems with the same rule last sea- feated showing in the playdowns by sweeping the Stouffville son, losing goaltender Scott Greenham in the middle of the Clippers in the final. Rangers captain Blake Stewart scored five minutes into Dudley Hewitt Cup Central Canadian championship tourovertime of the clinching game Friday in Stouffville, lifting nament. "When you lose a goaltender, it's a little different story," Oakville to a 4-3 come-from-behind victory. The Rangers trailed Stouffville 3-0 in the first period Coccimiglio said. "(Senecal's) a big part of their team, but before scoring four unanswered goals. at the end of the day they have other players who can step "For them to come back and win in that fashion was up." amazing... it says a lot about how our season went this year. Game 5 of the Blades/Dukes series is scheduled for They never gave up and just kept playing," said Oakville head Friday in Oakville, beginning at 7:30 p.m. -- Jon Kuiperij coach Dominic Reale. clutch markers the forward provided in the tournament. Mark Bennett had Oakville's other goal in the final. The Rangers had lost their first game of the tournament round-robin to YorkSimcoe, severely crippling their hopes of reaching the gold-medal game. Oakville then posted two wins and a tie, edging out the North Central Predators in a tiebreaker for a spot in the final. "It was by the slimmest of margins," Rangers head coach Tom Daley said of the tie-breaker, which added teams' goals for and against and then divided that number by the teams' goals against. "The hockey gods smiled on us." Daley felt his club carried the play against its OMHA opponents but had difficulty scoring goals. Aside from a 6-1 rout of the Grey- Bruce Highlanders, the Rangers scored nine goals in their other four games. Oakville was first in Tri-County play this year with a 27-6-3 record, earning one more point than the Burlington Eagles. Last year's midget AAA team won OMHA bronze. This year's squad is a combination of first-year and second-year midgets. Daley said one key to the club's success has been the camaraderie of the players. "They have melded together and like each other as kids," he said. "That's been our biggest attribute." Oakville will face Hamilton, Burlington, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and a Greater Toronto Hockey League representative at the OHF championships, which begin Monday. Minor peewee AE team repeats as OMHA champs The Rangers tore up their Tri-County competition this year, finishing first with a 24-2-2 record. Their only ties and losses came against the Caledon Hawks -- the team Oakville beat in last year's OMHA atom AE final -- but Caledon was eliminated in the playdown qualifiers by the Flamborough Sabres. Oakville went 6-0 in qualifiers, then defeated Flamborough 3-0-1 in the quarter-finals before sweeping both the Uxbridge Stars and Stouffville. "In essence, Flamborough did us a favour," Reale said. "We always had a mental block when it came to Caledon. It was always back and forth with them. They were one of See Plenty page 26