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SPORTS & LEISURE Viktoria Plackoska of the Halton Hills Blue Fins churns through the water on the way to her fourthplace finish in the girls 12 and under 100m breaststroke at the recent Cobra Cash Challenge swim meet in Brampton. 11 Independent & Free Press, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 Raiders to ease up By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer With first place in the Ontario Jr. A Hockey League standings seemingly out of reach for the Georgetown Raiders, their final 15 regular-season games will be geared to being in top form for the playoffs. That's how head coach and general manager James Richmond is preparing his thirdplace squad for the final month of the season, which is a bit of a different strategy for the fourthyear Georgetown bench boss. After losing another hardfought road game 3-2 to the front-running Kingston Voyageurs Thursday night, the 32-7-2 Raiders are 10 points out of top spot and three points back of rival Oakville, winners of seven straight contests. Georgetown is on a decent run of its own, having won eight of its past 10 starts, although Richmond says he'll likely lessen the workload of some of his players over the next few games. "The chances of us getting first place would mean that we'd have to win out in the rest of our games and get some help from other teams, so do we want to shoot for first or be fresh and healthy for the playoffs?" said Richmond, whose side broke a franchise record for wins last season, but lost on home ice in game seven of the division final series to Oakville. "Maybe I've been guilty of keeping the pedal to the floor the last couple of years, so this time we're going to approach it differently. We'll work closely with (athletic trainer Andrew Groombridge) and probably rest guys here and there. We play everybody in different situations anyway so we'll continue to spread the ice time around." On Thursday, in front of a capacity crowd of over 1,000 spectators that included the Clarkson University band from nearby Potsdam, N.Y., the Raiders controlled long stretches of play against the Voyageurs, who hyped the game as part of their bid to host the 2012 Royal Bank Cup national Jr. A championship. After falling behind 1-0 early on, the visitors received goals from Chris Borges and Sean Teakle on the power play to take the lead, and thought they'd gone up by two soon after but a Justin Basso marker was disallowed after the referee ruled that the net had been dislodged. Former OHLer Colt Kennedy then scored twice to clinch the win for Kingston, which has taken two of three meetings with Georgetown this year. The Raiders outshot the hosts 38-36 on the evening and will host the Voyageurs on Feb. 13. "It was pretty disappointing the way it all went down because I thought we were the better team and if we'd scored that third goal it probably would have been different," Richmond added. Georgetown defenceman Nick Avgerinos took a hard hit during the Kingston game and didn't play in the Raiders' 4-1 win at Bramalea Friday and a 6-0 blanking of guest Milton on Saturday, with Richmond hopeful he'll return this weekend for dates in Aurora Friday and at home Saturday to the Buffalo Jr. Sabres at 7:30 p.m. Scoring for the Raiders against the woeful IceHawks Saturday were Evan Rodrigues, Kyle Essery, Steve Perfetto, Jeremy Wick, Basso and Duston Hebebrand, as rookie Michael Nishi made 24 saves for his second shutout of the season. Wick tallied twice Friday versus Bramalea, with singles going to John Girman and Scott Wilson. GEORGETOWN JUNIOR "A" Submitted photo Blue Fins reach swim milestone The Halton Hills Blue Fins hit the century mark for top-10 finishes in their respective age groups at the Cobra Cash Challenge in Brampton. With individual swimmers placing in a variety of events, some club members even pulled multiple provincial standard times. Following are some of the top finishers in their events: Boys 15 Yrs. & Over Trevor Burwell-- 1st 100m freestyle, 1st 200m freestyle, 2nd 100m backstroke, 2nd 100m butterfly Aaron Brautigam-- 2nd 100m breaststroke, 2nd 200m breaststroke, 5th 100m freestyle Karl Massey-- 2nd 100m backstroke, 2nd 200m backstroke, 4th 200m individual medley, Taylr Cawte 4th 100 breaststroke 14-Year-Old Boys Mitchell Krafczek-- 2nd 100m backstroke, 3rd 100m freestyle, 4th 200m freestyle Ryan Smith-- 4th 100m freestyle 14-Year-Old Girls Caylee Brydie-- 3rd 200m breaststroke Kristen Gergely-- 4th 200m backstroke, 5th 100m freestyle, 5th 200m IM Alexandra Taran-- 4th 200m butterfly Tatyana Austrie-- 5th 400m freestyle Kaitlyn Daley-- 5th 200m backstroke Kiley Hill-- 5th 200m butterfly 13-Year-Old Girls Alicia Lubja-- 4th 200m butterfly Boys 12 Yrs & Under Matthew Fox-- 2nd 100m backstroke, 2nd 200m backstroke, 4th 100m freestyle, 5th 100m breaststroke Michael Jans-- 2nd 200m backstroke, 3rd 100m backstroke, 4th 200m IM Quinn Jaggard-- 5th 100m backstroke, 5th 50m butterfly Girls 12 Yrs. & Under Keri-Lyn Copeland-- 1st 200m backstroke, 2nd 100m freestyle, 2nd 200m freestyle, 2nd 100m backstroke Tessa Cieplucha-- 2nd 200m breaststroke, 3rd 100m backstroke, 4th 100m breaststroke, 4th 100m butterfly Emma Fender-- 3rd 200m breaststroke, 5th 100m breaststroke Viktoria Plackoska-- 4th 100m breaststroke Paige Olmstead-- 5th 400m freestyle, Kelly Smith 5th 100m backstroke Rebels dumped Andrew Smith (right) of the Georgetown Rebels gets tangled up with Nelson's Jake Lukasik (71) and a linesman during their Halton high school boys' hockey matchup Thursday at the Alcott Arena. Smith and Derek Kessel scored for the 1-5-1 Rebels in a 6-2 loss to the 5-2-0 Lords. In other boys' action, Christ the King's Jaguars defeated Robert Bateman 3-0 as Dylan Hannan scored twice and Matt Quinn had the other. Photo by Eamonn Maher GEORGETOWN JR. A GEORGETOWN TOYOTA RAIDERS vs BUFFALO JR. SABRES Saturday, January 23, 2010 7:30 pm Mold-Masters SportsPlex (Alcott Arena) www.georgetownraidersjra.com GAME OF THE WEEK