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D 4 - The Oakville Beaver, W e d n e sd a y M a rc h 20, 2002 Rangers advance to provincial championships March 25-30 (Continued from page D1) O M H A C H A M P IO N S H IP G A M E SU M M A RY O akville R angers 2, Q u in te Red Devils I (all `86 birth years), the (Scoring) core of this team has Tea in P layer Assists Tim e Rangers #14 Nick Dodge <#10 Tyler Donati actually been together #15 Charlie G iflin 04:38 eight years -- more than Rangers # 10 Tyler Donati Unassisted 14:40 half their lives. Red Devils # 14 Ryan Adams Unassisted 13:30 And in all o f those (Penalties) Team play er Infraction Tim e years, they've never fin 1 Rangers #11 Nick Davis Hooking 03:55 ished worse than a podi 2 Red Devils #10 Danny Petherick Slashing 05:36 um finish. Sunday's 3 Rangers #18 Dan Hannigan-Daley Roughing 14:11 cham pionship win closed kids loved it. A lot o f their friends off their OMHA medal haul at an from school were here, family and impressive five gold m edals, two relatives. It has got to be great play silver and one bronze. ing in front o f all those people." The cast has changed slightly, Added Chris Rowan, who was year to year. One thing players at alm ost perfect betw een the pipes in this elite level have to get used to IS his final home game: " it felt like we the dreaded try-out cuts. had to go out and give it one more And those cuts are no tougher aw esom e game and we went out and than in Oakville where the '86 birth we did it. It was awesome. year is a gold mine of talent. "A ctually we thought it was Case in point, is that O akville's going to be a good game and it bantam AA rep team, has also made w as." their own OM HA cham pionship W hile a blow out would have series. eased the collective heart rate and The triple-A Rangers have been spared a few finger nails it w ouldn't very good for a very long tim e, not nearly have been as entertaining as losing a regular season game during the anticipation o f that final period, the past two seasons. Last year, they up by one goal in the heretofore were 30 wins and one tie. And biggest game o f their lives. amazingly, this year, with five AA " He (coach M cKenzie) was just `prom otions' in the fold, they were a telling us to play hard, just win the perfect 3 1 wins. period, cause w e've already won Last year, in the playoffs leading tw o." related MVP Tyler Donati. up to the OMHA cham pionships The team is now hoping for sim i they lost but one game. This year, lar success as they take their act on they were a perfect 6-0, defeating the road to the provincial cham pi both St. Catharines and Bram pton in onships next week in Brantford. three games straight. The last time it was held for their And during the actual OM HA age-group. two years ago in their championship w eekend, they lost major peewee year, the Rangers but one game, both last year and this made it all the way to the cham pi year. onship gam e, earning a silver medal. All in all, it's a phenom enal lega Given the com petitive nature of cy to leave behind. And they could this team, it's no surprise that their n't have asked for a better ending goal, this time around is "to win the than to w in their last -- and most OHL C up," said Tyler Donati. important -- home gam e. "W e're going to win it. T h at's our "It was w onderful, it was great," goal," agreed Rowan. said coach M cKenzie. "I know the Julie Fairrie * Oakville B eaver Nick Dodge has a glorious opportunity in the tourney opener against Halton Hills. O akville won 4-0. Tourney Stats Pack PR E L IM IN A R Y ROUND (Standings) GP W L T F A OAKVILLE RANGERS 4 0 3 1 10 4 Quinte Red Devils 4 3 1 0 17 12 Niagara Falls Jr. Canucks 4 1 2 1 12 11 York Simcoe Express 4 1 2 1 10 7 Halton Hurricanes 4 1 3 0 9 19 (O akville results) O A K V IL L E 3, Q u in te 1 P layer Team Assists Rangers #15 Charlie Giffin #11 Nick Davis #9 Brad McKenzie Rangers #10 Tyler Donati #19 Justin Donati Rangers # 10 Tyler Donati #4 Andy MacDonald #19 Justin Donati 3 Red Devils #9 Rustv Masters # 11 Ryan Christian #3 Josh Carney York Sim coe 1 Express 3 Express 3 Rangers E xpress 2. O A K V IIX E R A N G ER S 1 #16 Joel Sheppard #9 Ricky Schrank #4 Andy Lamoureux# 17 Steve Downie #18 Dan Hannigan-Dalcy#2 Connor Farris PTS 6 6 3 3 2 Come-back kids in OMHA final The Oakville Rangers minor bantam AA rep team won the open-, ing game of their best-of-five Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championship series, the same way they closed out their OMHA semifinal series -- with a gutsy comeback, overtime win. At Glen Abbey Monday night. Jeff Sebben scored 9:10 into over time. on a goalmouth scramble, to give the Rangers a 3-2 win over Aurora Tigers, and a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five OMHA champi onship series. Oakville had fallen behind 2-0 early in the first period. After a scoreless second period, however. Mike Ledressay finally broke the ice for Oakville with 6:28 left in the game and then Carson Jenkin potted the equalizer with just four minutes remaining. Assists went to Jeff Sebben. James Albrecht and Mike Maganja. Coach Roy Gringmuth praised the work of his defence corps in the win. With Nick Dvemechuk sitting out the game. Jamie March, Scott Emberley. Shane Jackman, and Cory Martin came through with clutch performances. The series resumed in Aurora last night (it went beyond our press deadlines) and is back in Oakville Thursday, at Glen Abbey. In semifinal action, Oakville went into Chatham last weekend with a two-game lead in the best-of-five series, but with the remain der of the games slated for Chatham. The Rangers, however, saved on some hotel bills with a 4-3 comefrom-behind, overtime win to sweep the series. It wasn't easy, though. The Rangers trailed 3-2 late in the game, with their goalie pulled, and coach Roy Gringmuth dangling the car rot, "win tonight and we can go home." Sure enough, with 55 seconds to go. Eric Murray lied it up. And then, in overtime. Mike Maganja popped in the winner with just 3:15 remaining. "Let's go home," said Gringmuth. Bryce Dakin scored the first two goals. Assists went to Eric Murray, Jesse Mejaski and Mike Maganja. OMHA championship notes... LOTS O F F A N S ... Minor Oaks Hockey Association (MOHA) officials estimate that more than 5000 fans filled the stands at River Oaks over the three days of the champi onship, among them Dave Robertson, a stalwart for many years with the MOHA: "That's the first game I've seen in two and a half years", he said. "The Oakville Bantams are a fine hockey team." ...AND SCO U TS, TO O There were upwards of 100 junior hockey scouts on hand for the opening day's games, in recognition of the cali bre of the players participating. C O M IN G T O YOU LIVE! COGECO (Channel 23) did a live broadcast of the game! W ILD CARD W IN S BRO N ZE The wild-card team (Niagara Falls) for the tournament showed the strength of the South Central AAA league, as they went on to win the bronze medal over the York Simcoe Express. TH A N K S FO R MUSIC Thanks to Ryan Hannigan Daley for the great music, including Stompin' Tom Connors' The Hockey Song. "DOOR IS ALWAYS OPEN* MOHA officials were intrigued by the number of Oakville boys (and their parents) in attendance, who are now playing in the GTHL. The word is that many have asked back in ... and the offi cial MOHA answer is that the door is always open. SPO R TSM A N SH IP The impressive trophy and medal presentation was an example of class by the Oakville players. As each Quinte player was presented with his silver medal, an Oakville play er would skate forward and shake his hand, and then skate over to the rest of the Quinte team, and shake hands with each player. It became contagious, as the Quinte players picked up on it and did a sim ilar greeting with each Oakville player. lim e 13:57 10:56 11:51 09:25 01:18 12:39 06:00 O A K V IL L E R A N G ER S 2. N iagara KalLs Jr. C an u ck s I 2 Canucks # 11 Jordan Owens #88 Devin Sartor # 14 Mike W emer 0 8 :12 2 Rangers #19 Justin Donati Unassisted 07:47 2 Rangers #14 Nick Dodge #16 Jordy McMillan #18 Dan Hannigan-Daley 02:29 O A K V IL L E R A N G ER S 4. H alton HilLs H u rrica n es 0 2 Rangers #15 Charlie Giffin #12 Marc Richardson #9 Brad McKenzie 12:31 2 Rangers #11 Nick Davis #9 Brad McKenzie #15 Charlie Giffin 02:19 3 Rangers #19 Justin Donati #10 Tyler Donati #4 Andy MacDonald 13:40 3 Rangers #14 Nick Dodge #12 Marc Richardson #18 Dan Hannigan-Dalcy 09:40 KERRifio DEALS FOR Are you between 6 & 16 yrs of age? ._(§?_of Aug. 31)_ *15.895 SUM* SAU [ jl y lo o W .'W < 10* <23,895 su«* s w h^ | 0 0 W >km 2 0 0 2 FOOTBALL REGISTRATION Saturday March 23 9 am 3 pm Birth Certificate and Health Card Required KERR' S Fabulous Finds U HOIXIDA M m m lM Bn»i: LOCATION Equipment Centre (behind Nelson High School) *G M RENTAL BUYBACK. 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