The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2012 17 Fourth one-goal defeat bounces Blades from OJHL playoffs By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER Jack Brand during one of three Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championship tournaments last weekend at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. The atom Rangers earned silver at their tournament, while the minor atoms went 4-0-1 to win their OMHA championship. Oakville's peewees finished fourth. CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND: Alton McDermott of the Oakville atom AAA Rangers (left) tries to beat Burlington Eagles goaltender Minor atoms seize the opportunity By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Trailing by two goals going into the final period of Sunday's Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championship game, the Oakville minor atom AAA Rangers didn't focus on the deficit they faced. Instead, they focused on the opportunity. "I (told them to) think about how it would feel to be two goals down and come back and win this thing," Rangers head coach Jaan Luik said of his message to the team during the second intermission. "You could see them thinking `Wow, that would be unbelievable.'" The Rangers then went out and made the unbelievable a reality, rallying for four unanswered goals to down the York-Simcoe Express 6-4 and win their second straight OMHA title in one of three championship tournaments last weekend at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. The atom AAA Rangers reached the final before settling for silver, while the peewee AAA Rangers finished fourth. Leaders emerge for minor atoms Luik wasn't about to take all the credit for the minor atoms' reversal of fortunes in the third period. He had a bit of help as well. "As young as they are, we had some leadership emerge in the room among the kids themselves," said the coach, highlighting forward Ethan Ritchie as someone who was particularly vocal between periods. "You could see the belief start to happen at that point. The momentum was building emotionally." Cameron Garvey then got the comeback under way, scoring his second goal of the game early in the third period to pull Oakville within 4-3. Ritchie collected his second of the game, Cameron Tolnai added his eighth goal of the tournament, and Garvey scored again to complete both a hat trick and the Rangers' rally. This actually marks the third straight year the Rangers have gone as far as possible in the playoffs. The team won its league playoff as tykes two years ago (there are no OMHA tournaments at that level) and then claimed its first OMHA title last season. "I thnk it's just the character of the kids on the team. They've learned how to be winners at a really young age," Luik said. "They have a lot of fun with each other, there are no cliques, and they genuinely care about each other." Tolnai led the tournament in scoring, adding seven assists to his eight-goal output. Luke Evangelista (two goals, six assists), Garvey (five goals, three helpers) and Christopher Parsons (three See Atoms, page 18 Close may be sufficient in horseshoes and hand grenades, but it didn't do the Oakville Blades any good in their Ontario Junior Hockey League West Division championship series with the Georgetown Raiders. Georgetown edged the Blades 2-1 Friday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex to claim the best-ofseven West final in six games. All four of Oakville's losses came by one goal, and two of those defeats came in overtime. In fact, Oakville finished the series with more goals than the Raiders (15-13), thanks to a 6-1 rout of the Raiders in Game 5 last Wednesday. The Blades also hit more than their share of goalposts throughout the series, including twice in the final minute of their Game 1 loss and another couple times in the third period of their defeat in Game 4. "It came down to a couple of bad bounces here and there, not just (in Game 6) but all through the series," Blades captain Kyle Blaney said. "I think I hit about four posts that I thought were in. But (the Raiders) are a good team, and lots of credit to them." Oakville's elimination means this is the first time in five years the Blades will not reach the Ontario Junior Hockey League final. Oakville won the league title two of those years, going on to represent Central Canada at the RBC Royal Bank Cup each time. "My last year, I would have liked to finish it a bit better, but that's hockey," said Blaney, who will likely play U.S. college hockey next season. "This organization's been great to me. If you win every year, you haven't been through it all, and (this is) one of those things that you learn from." Tyler Karius had Oakville's lone goal Friday, tying the game 1-1 in the first period. The teams remained deadlocked after that until Georgetown's Jacob Bauchman scored the winner with 4:03 to go in regulation time. Karius finished the series with six goals -- including two game-winners -- and three assists, but it wasn't enough to help the Blades to their fifth playoff series victory over the Raiders in as many years. Georgetown, which features local residents Patrick Megannety, Jeremy DeFazio and Nathaniel Domagala, will face the North Division champion Stouffville Spirit in the league semifinals. That series begins tonight (Wednesday) in Georgetown. -- With files from Eamonn Maher, Metroland Media Group