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Editor: Norm Nelson Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: nnelson@haltonsearch.com W ill >NKSI >AY. A l 'K lL .'i. 2<X)2 · I 'a ^ c 1)1 SPORTS Sec me before you purchase or lease your next vth idc Gi e n le v e n t II r y s l e r C h rysler . j El P · d o d g e 2388KyA Winder Dt, 905*45-7575 It's a wrap: silver lining at all-Ontario's By Norm Netson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR he Oakville Rangers bantam A A A rep team closed off their unparalleled minor hockey careers with a silver medal at the allOntario championships this past weekend at the Brantford Civic Centre. Before the largest hockey crowd there in more than a decade, the Rangers were upended in the gold medal game 5-3 by the Toronto Red Wings. The game was televised on CFMT. A 3-0 deficit was just too much for the Rangers to overcome, although they kept plugging away, reducing the deficits to 3-2 and then 4-3 before the Red Wings put the game away for good with an empty net goal. 'it's hard to come from behind when you're down three quick,"said Rangers coach Scott McKenzie. " The boys just kept battling away, kept entiling the net. kept forechecking hard. The desire on this team is unbe lievable. They just keep working and working arid working, and 1 thought we were going to do it. 1 thought we were going to go to overtime, but we just ran out of time." The Rangers best chance was a hard shot with 2:47 remaining that had the Toronto goalie looking behind him. " I thought it was in, too," said coach McKenzie. " I thought it went between his legs." The Rangers were in a position to tie the game at this point, thanks to a great reach-behind glove save by Chris Rowan, named best goalie in the tournament. A two-goal performance by Charlie Giffin also helped fuel the comeback. The Rangers were a bit unlucky to be down 3-0 as they were generating their share of chances, as well. " We had a couple o f bad breaks and the Toronto Red Wings, are a very good hockey team, always have been. "They only lost a couple of games this year in league play. We played them four times now -- we're two CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARY TORONTO 12 2-5 OAKVILLE 0 2 1-3 First Period 1.TOR: Robinson I (Piccone) 04:39 Pen: Donati OAK (Cross Checking) 13:27. Second Period 2. TOR: Morrison 5 (Botland. Boncllo) 02:41 3. TOR: Morrison 6 (Bolland. Boncllo) 05:16 4. OAK: Giffin 1(McKenzie. Davis) 11:18 Third Period 5. OAK: McMillan 4 (Chcrcshncvsky. Dodge) 05:01 6. TOR: Bickcll 5 (Bolland. Ursini) 10:02 7. OAK: Giffin I (Donati. Donati) 11:39 8. TOR: Morrison 7 (Bolland. Vukovic) (cn) 14 :2 1 Pen: Vukovic TOR (Tripping) 01:47. Shots on goal by: 1 2 3 Oakville ' 61 1 9 -26 Toronto 87 1 0 -25 Goaltenders: Chris Rowan for Oak\ ille: Daniel Goulding for Toronto. PP Conversions: OAK: 0/1: TOR: 0/1. T T O U R N EY SC O R IN G L E A D E R S Player/Team Donati. Tyler. OAK Morrison. Jordan. TOR Donati. Justin. OAK Bolland. David. TOR Falsetto. Gene. NHP Sweeney. Patrick. NEP Dodge. Nick. OAK Piccone, Joey. TOR King. Jacob. SSM Michie. Geordie. NEP GPG 8 8 8 7 8 6 8 6 8 6 8 4 8 4 8 1 6 3 8 6 A 9 7 7 6 5 7 6 9 6 2 Pis 1 7 1 4 1 3 1 2 II II 1 0 1 0 9 8 PIM 4 4 0 6 8 4 0 0 6 1 2 and two. But they won the big one today." There was symmetry in the match up against the Red Wings in that the Rangers lost two games in the prelim inary round -- to the Red Wings and to the Nepean Raiders. The Rangers managed to avenge the loss to the Nepean Raiders by defeating them 4-2 in Friday's semifi nal. But they just couldn't avenge their 1-0 preliminary round loss to the Red Wings. Still, coach McKenzie termed it a " tremendous" tournament. The Rangers finished the round robin in third place with a 4-2 record. " The six champion teams from Ontario were here. We played well in all games. I think we were a little sluggish in the Nepean game but we played well, we finished strong, and we had a great (semifinal) game with (See 'Rangers' page D3) Action was intense, befitting an all-Ontario championship. Here, an Oakville player is doubled up on the boards The Red Wings get a goal ... The Rangers, of course, dished out their own. as evidenced by this Mark Chereshnevsky hit Photos by Barrie Erskine Oakville Rangers head coach Scott McKenzie maps out this team's last ever play, with their goalie pulled.