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

Sports Oakville Beaver 27 · Thursday, January 3, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-632-0588 (ext. 294) email sports@oakvillebeaver.com 2012 Richard Bell Memorial Minor Hockey Tournament Extra work pays off for minor atom As By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLEBEAVERSTAFF ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @HALTON_PHOTOG SPLITTING THE D: Oakville minor atom AE Rangers defenceman Jacob Gawronski drives to the net during Saturday's Richard Bell tournament final against Orangeville at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Minor atom AE Rangers dominate "Our coach was telling us to be more aggressive and we pretty much just got the puck, tried to get in front of the net and we were able to score," Gawronski said. Hempel also made some key saves in the contest, stopFourteen teams won gold at last week's Richard Bell Memorial Minor Hockey Tournament. Few clubs could ping a shot by a Flyers player who came in all alone with match the dominant performance put forth by the a minute remaining in the second and using his blocker hand to stop Orangeville forward Dale Critchley's wrister Oakville Rangers minor atom AE squad. Winning all five of their contests heading into the from the slot in the third when Oakville had a 3-1 lead. "He makes those saves when he has to," Rangers assischampionship final, the Rangers capped off a perfect tournament, beating the Orangeville Flyers 5-2 in the title tant coach and Owen's father, Andrew Hempel, said. "I'm pretty proud when he does those." game Saturday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Flyers head coach Bill "It feels pretty good," Fitzpatrick said his club Oakville starting goaltenCoverage of the minor bantam AE, minor midget A and was fully aware of the der Owen Hempel said. "It minor midget AA Rangers' Bell championship wins will tough test the Rangers feels like we won the appear in Friday's edition of the Beaver and is also would present. Stanley Cup." available online at www.oakvillebeaver.com. "We knew we'd have to Dylan Garner, Robbie battle hard," he said. "We Cleary, Dylan Sheridan, Michael Filice and Alex Lardis all scored in the final for played them a couple of weeks ago and beat them 4-1 but the Rangers, who netted 33 goals and allowed just three we knew that Oakville's a strong team and whoever came out working the hardest was going to prevail." in their six games. The focus for Oakville now shifts to the upcoming "This whole team is amazing," Oakville defenceman Jacob Gawronski said. "I couldn't have asked for a better Ontario Minor Hockey Association playdowns. Andrew Hempel feels a title victory can only help the club's confione." After Garner put the Rangers on the board early in the dence moving forward. "I think it's a good building block so we can actually first, Orangeville tied the game 1-1 with 3:24 remaining in the period. From there, it was all Oakville, which feel positive about going into the playoffs," he said. "It's scored twice in the second and added another two in the nice for the guys to have the feeling of being a champion and putting this all together as a team." third to seal the victory. By Ryan Glassman SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Oakville Rangers goalie Justin Wu kicked out his right pad to make the save. His teammate Andrew Kranjac corralled the rebound and spotted Hunter Greenhalgh along the boards. Greenhalgh took the pass a stride ahead of his opponent, and suddenly -- with the Burlington Eagles' defence caught on a change -- there was a wide open sheet of ice in front of him. Greenhalgh broke down the wing and as he cut across the faceoff circle, a Burlington defenceman raced to cut off his path to the net. The defenceman would not get there in time. Greenhalgh knew exactly what he wanted to do. He pulled the puck back, then snapped it forward. The puck sailed past the outstretched glove of the Eagle netminder and hit the mesh in the upper back corner of the net. "I work on it a lot in the driveway," Greenhalgh said of his shot, which produced the game's only goal in the Rangers' victory in the minor atom A final at the Richard Bell Memorial Minor Hockey Tournament Saturday. "I just aim at targets, like old bicycle helmets." Greenhalgh's extra efforts are typical of the team coach Don Simpson has filled with hard-working kids. And that hard work has been rewarded this season. The Bell was the third tournament title of the year for the Rangers, who also won the Woodstock Silver Stick and the Pittsburgh Steel City tournaments earlier this season. In league play, the Rangers have gone 22-3-1, scoring almost five times as many goals (168) as they have allowed (35). Overall, the team is 40-7-1. For all their efforts, though, there is still one team ahead of them in the Tri-County Hockey League standings -- Burlington, which sports a 24-1-1 mark. Early on, the Eagles showed why. They dominated play for the first seven minutes, outshooting Oakville 6-0, and only the play of Wu kept the game scoreless. This is Wu's second season as a goalie after beginning his hockey career as a skater. "I decided being a goalie was cool," said Wu, who played a much more conventional style than his favourite netminder -- 2011 Stanley Cup winner Tim Thomas -- in stopping 20 shots for the shutout. That Wu needed a couple of big saves in the final minute to preserve the win didn't surprise Simpson. "They're a good team," said the Rangers' coach. "It's a big rivalry between the two towns. We've played them five times and won two, lost two and tied one. But we'll always take a win for a championship, especially at home." Simpson said the team's conditioning gives it an edge, allowing it to remain strong late in games (the Rangers had more shots on goal in the third than the first two periods combined Saturday). Depth also contributes to the Rangers' success. "It's not one player. Our lines are balanced. There's no superstars," Simpson said. "When we win, we win as a team." Or, as Wu put it when asked what makes the Rangers so good, "our awesomeness."