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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports 29 | Thursday, April 11, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Last weekend was a record-setting one for the Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association. An unprecedented three Hornets squads -- the novice A, atom AA and senior A teams -- won Ontario Women's Hockey Association championships Sunday in Ottawa, with the peewee BB and bantam AA Hornets also reaching finals before settling for silver. "I was driving from rink to rink to watch all the finals," said Hornets president Mike Turczyniak, who made the trip to Ottawa despite the fact that his daughter's team did not qualify for provincials. "It was good, a good feeling. I think the most medals we've won in one year was four, and that would have included bronzes. I know we've never had three golds in one year... To be in five championship games was pretty cool." Hornets boast three provincial champions Peewees hope to surprise at OHF tourney by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Novice A Things didn't start too well at provincials for the novice A Hornets, who lost their first game and tied their second. Fortunately, the team has shown a tendency to play better when the stakes are at their highest. Oakville shook off its tough start to win four consecutive games, including a 2-1 victory over the Whitby Wildcats in the final, and become just the third-ever Hornets team to win a Lower Lakes and OWHA title in the same season. The Hornets' run began with a 3-1 victory over the Etobicoke Dolphins -- a team that had twice defeated Oakville earlier in the campaign -- in their final round-robin game. Oakville then posted a 1-0 overtime win over Cambridge in the quarter-finals and a 4-2 win over North York in the semis. "Our girls, when you push them against a wall, they just get stronger," said Hornets coach Brad Arsenault. "That's been our M.O. for the last couple months." Arsenault said defence and leadership were the biggest factors in Oakville's improvement throughout the tournament. "We've tried various combinations throughout the year to develop players in different roles and capacities. When your leaders lead, the other players will support that," the coach said. "And I encouraged our team to play stronger defensively as a unit, and they executed perfectly. All the girls came together defensively and fought the good fight in the neutral zone and their own end." Members of the novice squad are Alex The Oakville atom AA (top photo) and senior A Hornets both won Ontario Women`s Hockey Association championships last weekend. A photo of the novice A Hornets, who also won OWHA gold, appeared last week in the Beaver and can also be found online at www.insidehalton.com.| photos submitted Crich, Ava Walker, Avery Spence, Breanna Lombardo, Cassidy Mallette, Ella Jackson, Kathryn Zuliani, Olivia Hunt, Paige Oliver, Rachel Hamburg, Reese Oliver, Reichen Kirchmair, Stephanie Stainton, Tatum Martino, Taya Balfour, Taylor Stanford and Sydney O'Leary. Mike Kirchmair, Jeff Crich, Jordan Currie, Craig Balfour and Erin Arsenault are assistant coaches, and Stephanie Oliver is the trainer. Atom AA Even before the season began, the atom AA Hornets knew who they would need to beat in order to win their second straight OWHA title. "This year, the whole program we ran was really modeled to ultimately go after (the Durham West Lightning) when it counted," said Oakville head coach Steve Lester. Just as Lester suspected, the road to an OWHA championship did indeed run through Durham West, though the teams met earlier at provincials than they both might have anticipated. Oakville defeated the Lightning 2-1 in the quarter-finals on Quinn Kolwich's overtime goal, setting off a massive celebration by Hornets players, coaches and parents alike. "We all celebrated as if we had won the championship," Lester said. Following that dramatic triumph -- which avenged Durham West's win over Oakville in the Lower Lakes final -- the Hornets' biggest challenge might have been avoiding an emotional letdown in their following game. Oakville managed to do so, heavily outshooting the Etobicoke Dolphins in a 1-0 semifinal victory and then claiming the OWHA crown with a 4-1 win over the Stoney Creek Sabres. Olivia Wallin scored twice, Paige Lester and Kolwich added singles and Morgan Damery continued her strong play in goal for the Hornets in the final. Earlier in the tournament, Oakville At first glance, one might not like the Oakville peewee AA Rangers' chances at the Ontario Hockey Federation championships that begin tomorrow (Friday) at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. The Rangers, granted an automatic entry to the five-team tournament because they are the hosts, weren't able to advance past the qualifying round of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association playdowns. The team most responsible for beating Oakville out in qualifying, the Burlington Eagles, went on to reach the OMHA finals before being swept in three games by the Clarington Toros. Clarington, a team the Rangers will face at the OHF tournament, outscored the Eagles 21-3 in those three games. "On paper, it doesn't (look good)," Rangers head coach Craig Gaskin admitted. "But I'm not particularly concerned." Gaskin said that injuries and suspensions to key players played a big role in the Rangers' early exit from OMHA playdowns, and that Burlington suffered a similar fate in the final against Clarington. Oakville has since righted the ship, winning the TriCounty Minor Hockey League title once its missing players returned. "Our best hockey absolutely started in late February and March," Gaskin said. "That's after getting everyone back in the lineup and establishing some chemistry. That took longer to get right, but we've got it right now." In addition to Clarington -- a team the Rangers beat twice in tournament play last season -- the Rangers will also face the Greater Toronto Hockey League's Ted Reeve Thunder, Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario's London Jr. Knights and Northern Ontario Hockey Association's West Ferris Trappers at the OHF competition. Oakville lost two tight games with Ted Reeve earlier this season in tournament play, and dropped its lone meeting with London. In all three of those contests, Gaskin said, the Rangers were without star forward Chris Elliott, who broke his arm in the second game of the season and didn't return until around Christmas. "The teams we've played haven't seen what our team is like because we've only played about eight games with a full bench this year," Gaskin said. "It was hard. We've gotten lucky in prior years, when we didn't have injuries and suspensions affecting our bench. But those things happen sometimes." The Rangers will play their first game of the tour- see Senior on p.30 see Rangers on p.30